


Empathy

by RainbowLotus



Series: Soutien's Journey [1]
Category: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Video Games)
Genre: Backstory, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Fist Fights, Flirting, Fluff, Français | French, Humor, M/M, Medical Procedures, Military Background, Military Backstory, Original Character(s), Recruit lives matter, Thermite and Ash have a brother-sister relationship, Trust exercises, casual banter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:00:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22578202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowLotus/pseuds/RainbowLotus
Summary: A combat medic from RAID, Alexandre "Soutien" Moreau, is transferred into Rainbow and has to adjust to the drastic changes of work flow. He has to get familiarized with a new base of operations while also tackling the challenge of getting to know his new teammates. There will be a lot of bumps in the road, but Alexandre is confident he can get past them.
Relationships: Eliza "Ash" Cohen & Alexandre "Soutien" Moreau (Original Character), Gustave "Doc" Kateb & Alexandre "Soutien" Moreau (Original Character), Jordan "Thermite" Trace/Alexandre "Soutien" Moreau (Original Character)
Series: Soutien's Journey [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2090787
Comments: 58
Kudos: 77





	1. Introductions

Alexandre huffed in frustration as he made an attempt to squeeze himself through the huge mob of civilians that were travelling through the Bristol Airport. On one hand, he had his luggage in tow, with two duffle bags secured onto the top of the luggage case. In the other, he had his cellphone close to his ear. He landed at the airport roughly thirty minutes ago and he was trying his best to get to the exit gates that were past the baggage claim. He hadn’t accounted for there being so many people blocking his way to meet his ride, and now he was being delayed by almost an hour!

Alexandre “Soutien” Moreau was recently recruited a few months prior to this day, roughly August of 2019, into a program known as Rainbow. It was a private organization that was associated with the United Nations. NATO to be more specific, and very few outside of the program’s operations knew that the organization existed. Before the recruitment, he had been a Combat Rescue Officer and Medic for the French police force known as RAID. Rainbow was in need of innovative thinkers, strategic planners, bold soldiers, and most of all, willing medical assistance. With the development of Alexandre’s first prototype defibrillator gloves and his selfless actions in a shooting that resulted in no fatalities, Moreau was scouted out rather quickly.

Harishva Pandey, or “Harry”, as Soutien had been informed, is the new leader of the organization after the previous leader had gotten a promotion to work in the Pentagon for the United States government. Based on the little conversation he had before his recruitment, the man came across as cautious, but also inviting. Harry had promised Alexandre a proper discussion in person when he flies into Hereford. So, this was the day that long awaited talk would arrive. All he had to do was be able to leave the damn airport first.

“Alexandre.”

The brunette halted, stepped off to the side and away from the large crowd of people. Then he brought his attention back to who he was talking on the phone with. They were his ride to the Hereford Headquarters for Rainbow; Eliza Cohen.

“Sorry… _merde_ this place is too crowded. I haven’t even made it out of the Baggage Claim yet.” The medic muttered tiredly and rubbed the back of his neck in pure frustration.

He heard a small, almost sympathetic laugh. “Don’t worry too much about it. Six won’t really mind if we’re late.” Alexandre smiled a little at the response. “But what I want to know is why you chose to fly out on a Saturday right at the start of the holiday breaks.” The woman teased to try and lighten the mood. “That’s probably the worst mistake that you could have made during the whole trip.”

Alexandre shrugged his shoulders and continued walking with his luggage in tow. “I had to take care of the paperwork, transferring my supplies here, getting my deployment orders in check… this was the only time I could fly in before it got really busy.” He glanced around in defeat. “Or at least, I thought so.”

Eliza looked up at the time on the flight arrivals board and frowned in dismay. “Hate to break it to you but this is the busiest day for Hereford this time of year. Maybe next time when you have to fly in, we can coordinate this a bit better.” She mused towards the end and leaned against the metal gate that divided the ride shares and the flight arrivals at the waist level. “How close are you to the arrival gate?”

Alexandre sucked in an uncertain breath and tried to scope out the packed corridor ahead of him. “I… can’t tell. I think I’m almost there. Maybe ten more minutes at most?” He wagered and groaned when he had to catch his luggage after one of the wheels snagged on a crack in the floor.

“Sounds good. I’ll see you in ten.”

“Wait-” Soutien quickly stopped her from hanging up. “I don’t even know what you look like. How will I find you when I leave the gate?”

Eliza chuckled. “I have a sign with your name on it. You’ll see it. I’m at the front of the waiting zone.”

Alexandre exhaled in relief and nodded. “Okay. _À plus tard_.”

Ash was glad she was fluent in French. It made Alexandre’s mixture of that and English much easier to understand. “Yeah, see you in a bit.”

Soutien hung up the phone and tucked the device into his jacket pocket as he continued further down the corridor. The further he walked, the closer the arrival exit gate sign appeared, and the more relieved the medic felt. The day had been extremely busy, and he was glad that it would almost be over and he’d get to relax and simply talk, get to meet other people. You know, the fun stuff.

Alexandre nearly tumbled to the ground in sheer exhaustion as he passed through the arrivals gate where the pick up zone was. His legs felt like they were rattled by pins and needles. Probably from constant loss of circulation by repeating a cycle of sitting uncomfortably, squeezing by people, stretching, and sitting back down. It was ridiculous.

Now that he was at the final leg of the journey, Moreau sighed deeply and scanned the front edge of the fence that had a half-circular shape. _Okay, Eliza… where are you?_ He thought and made sure not to skip over anybody. There were dozens of people with signs, but they all didn’t have his name on it from what he saw. Did he hear Eliza incorrectly? He hadn’t thought so.

He was about to give up and take out his phone, but Alexandre stopped and looked straight ahead. Out of the corner of his eye, he found a woman with deep red locks of hair all packed into one, huge, but neat braid and she was wearing a short sleeve black shirt with jeans. She was leaning over the fence and held a sign with bold blue letters on it. It read ‘Alexandre Moreau’ across the whole thing.

Soutien approached her and when he reached the opposite end of the fence from where she stood, he smiled kindly.

“Madame Cohen?” He asked politely. The woman nodded and offered her hand as a greeting.

“Eliza or Ash is fine. You don’t have to be formal with me.” Eliza laughed in amusement. “I already take a lot of shit from everyone else.”

Alexandre hummed and his smile widened. “Then maybe that’s all the more reason to be polite to you.” He mused as he shook her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Eliza.”

“Likewise.” Eliza gestured for him to meet her around at the other side. “Come on. I have a partner keeping the car outside so we wouldn’t have to walk far. Let’s get moving before Six decides to call me after taking so long.”

Moreau followed her to the open area of the gate where he could walk through. Once he did, he glanced at her while they walked side by side.

“You said it wouldn’t matter if I was late.” Alexandre pointed out, referring to their previous conversation. Eliza shrugged her shoulders and looked back at him.

“You took almost an hour longer than what we had been expecting. Six tends to get worried about these sorts of things.” She explained calmly and crossed her arms over her chest. “But I can explain everything when we get back to HQ. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

Alexandre nodded. “I could explain it myself, since I’m going to be talking to him anyway.” Eliza silently agreed. She offered to carry his duffle bags so that the medic wouldn’t have to carry as much on his own. He thanked her promptly as they exited the airport itself and now stood outside, where there was a huge line of cars, in multiple varieties too. There were taxis, limos, family cars, sports cars, pick up trucks, you name it.

“So, which one is ours?”

Eliza groaned in frustration and rubbed her temple. “They didn’t park here… give me a second.” She whipped out her phone and scrolled through her contacts. She then dialed a number before putting the person on speaker phone.

Ring…

Ring…

Ri-

“Hey ‘Liza! Where are ya?"

Eliza frowned and had to use every ounce of energy not to lose her temper. “I should be asking you the same thing! Where the hell are you, Jordan? Alexandre and I are outside the terminal entrance and I don’t see you.”

“Hold your horses, ‘Liza, I’m not far. Look up a few cars from the terminal. You’ll see the van.” Alexandre recognized the accent as being a southern American one, but he had no idea who the voice belonged to. The only people he had met from Rainbow were Harry Pandey and Eliza Cohen. That’s it.

She turned and huffed a final breath before she motioned for the medic to follow her. “Yeah, I see it now. See you in a few.” She hung up and tucked the phone away into her back pocket while they headed towards the black van. It looked like a normal maintenance vehicle, except for the fact that when they opened the back doors to put Alexandre’s stuff in, there wasn’t any equipment. The van was empty, well all except for one man who sat in the driver’s seat on the right side.

Eliza set the two duffle bags in the back and slammed the back doors shut. She hopped into the passenger seat up front and Alexandre got in the back seat. He let out a long breath of happiness when he felt how comfy the seats actually were compared to the ones he had to sit in on his flight.

“So, this is the man of the hour, huh?” The one that Eliza had referred to as ‘Jordan’ turned around to look at Soutien with a big ol’ smile that just screamed he was friendly. “Nice to meet ya. Jordan Trace, I’m in the FBI with Eliza.”

Alexandre shook his hand when offered and smiled kindly. “Alexandre Moreau. I’m with RAID in France. It’s nice to meet you, Jordan.”

Everyone buckled up and Jordan got them on the road very quickly. It wasn’t hard finding an alternate route to leave the airport and avoid traffic. What was rough was the traffic that came afterward. It was right at the end of most people’s normal work schedules, so the streets were damn near packed. Alexandre didn’t really mind it, though. He relaxed into the seats and propped one leg on top of the other.

Jordan hummed along to the radio and Eliza was texting on her phone. She was probably letting Six know that they were heading back to the base and that everything went well, other than the huge delay.

Out of the blue, Jordan glanced up to look at Alexandre through the rear view mirror. “So, Alex- I can call you Alex right?” The medic nodded with an amused smile. “Cool. So, Alex. What’s your M.O.S?”

“My… M.O.S?” Alexandre repeated with confusion. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“Your specialty.” Eliza explained curtly. “He wants to know what your job is in your unit.”

“Oh!” Moreau laughed awkwardly and shrugged his shoulders to try and brush away that little moment. “I’m a Medic and Combat Rescue Officer.”

“No kidding? That's a rough job.” Jordan’s face lit up with either joy or astonishment. Alexandre couldn’t really tell. “What are the odds that both medics we have are French? That’s crazy.” He noticed Alex’s confusion and glanced over his shoulder to talk to him more directly, since they were stuck at a traffic light. “We have another medic that’s from the GIGN. He’s one hell of a doctor. He’s been the only primary physician we had. Well, not anymore with you here now.”

Alexandre mouthed a small ‘oh’ and thought to himself for a minute or two. He had no idea that there were other French military personnel. That was new information. Though, he was more concerned about what Jordan had said about this other medic being their only medical aid up until now.

“You had one man keeping track of every soldier in Rainbow?”

Ash heard his concerned tone and tried to ease his conscience. “He isn’t working alone. He has nurses and other medical staff that will come in from Hereford’s local hospitals to help if need be.” She sighed. “But even then. It is a lot to handle. That’s why Six found you and recruited you. We could use some extra hands around here.”

“Yeah. With things being the way they are, Doc’s got a lot on his plate.”

Alexandre looked between the two of them. “From what Six told me, I won’t be going on operations as the primary medical officer, unless absolutely necessary, as my skill set is more suited for rescue and evac.”

“Oh, so you’ll be at the base most of the time, then.” Jordan noted and rolled his shoulders to ease the tension from driving. “That’s not so bad. Pretty sure people get injured more at the base then they do in the field.”

“Really?” The medic raised an eyebrow. “I find that hard to believe.”

Eliza shook her head in dismay. “Trust me, you’ll take that back once you’ve stuck around long enough.”

The ride was quiet for a little while, excluding the radio and Jordan’s humming along to it’s tunes. Alexandre spent the quiet time messaging his commanding officer back in Bordeaux that he made it safely to Hereford, and that he was getting along well with two of Rainbow’s operatives. After that was done, Moreau scrolled through some documents on his prototype gadget that he had been developing. He needed to brush up on what he wrote, and this seemed like it was the best time.

The silence couldn’t last forever. Apparently the Americans didn’t appreciate the quiet atmosphere as much as Alexandre did, because Jordan was quick to strike up another discussion.

“You have a codename, Alex?”

Alexandre nodded and calmly answered, “Soutien.”

Jordan’s eyebrows furrowed as he tried to grasp the pronunciation. “Sooten?”

“No,” Moreau chuckled and guided him on how to say it. “Try it in syllables. Sue-Tea-En. Soutien.”

Eliza watched them go back and forth for a minute or two and silently enjoyed Jordan’s terrible pronunciations each time they went over it. When he finally got it down, they had a little fun joking about how French is a rough language to speak. Eliza, having some knowledge about learning it and becoming fluent, did agree with them.

“It’s not so bad once you get used to it.” Alexandre stated confidently.

Jordan rolls his eyes as a playful gesture. “Says the one who’s from France.”

Alexandre smirked. “I was born in France, but my father was military and had a lot of joint training with the United States military. So, I was there until I was about… I want to say about ten years old? I learned English first then when I went back to France I had to learn French.”

The texan gave a small ‘huh’ and pondered that for a quick second. “Where were you stationed, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“It was a base in southern California, I believe. I can’t remember the name anymore.” Moreau admitted and rubbed the back of his neck. “It was close to the coast.”

Jordan clicked his tongue. “Sounds like you’re talking about Camp Pendleton, but there’s plenty of other southern Cali bases for the military, especially the Marine Corps.” They both nodded and decided to drop it since they wouldn’t make progress on that part of the topic for the time being. Instead, Trace switched the subject back to the once they had just discussed prior to Alexandre’s upbringing. “What does your codename mean?”

“Support.” Eliza and Alex answered simultaneously.

Alexandre smiled and leaned forward to speak to both of them. “What are yours?”

“Well, mine is Ash,” Eliza replied. “But I told you that when we were at the airport.”

“Right,” The medic smiled sheepishly. “I wasn’t quite sure if that was your codename or just a nickname… I know my unit has some interesting names that have nothing to do with their birth name.”

Eliza nodded in acknowledgement. “Yeah, most of the time everyone will use first names and callsigns around here. Kind of a habit, really.” She smiled. “But guessing by your name and your callsign, I think everyone will want to call you by Alex like how Jordan did.”

The marine smirked. “Can you blame me?”

Alexandre shook his head. “No, I can see why.” He then tilted his head to look at Jordan. “What’s your codename, then?”

“Thermite.” He stated proudly.

“As in the grenades?” Moreau asked out of curiosity. Jordan had to consider it for a moment.

“I guess you could think of it that way. I think it was more for what the grenade does.” He then elaborated as he exited onto a street leading towards a base way off in the distance. “So a thermite grenade has a high temperature explosive reaction because of the chemical compounds in it. Because of that, and the fact I work with explosives a lot, the name kind of fits, y’know?”

“And the fact you're an explosive pain in the ass.” Eliza mused and gave a light punch to Jordan’s shoulder. Alexandre snickered when Trace pretended to be hurt.

“Hey, you don’t see me makin’ fun of you in front of the new guy.” He complained. Eliza grinned.

“That’s because you’ve got nothing on me, pal. Keep trying, you’ll get it some day.”

Thermite huffed in frustration and rolled his eyes. “Haha, very funny ‘Liza.” He swerved the van a tiny bit and cackled when Eliza panicked. “Bet you didn’t expect that now, did ya, _Lizzy_?”

Alexandre tried not to laugh when Ash said ‘Fuck off’, and went back to minding his own business for the rest of the trip. He had received a response from his commanding officer, which the medic was happy to read. Turns out his unit already missed him, especially since he usually brought pastries for them every Saturday for work. He wasn’t there that morning, so there wasn’t anything to have. The text caused Alex to giggle quietly. His laughter died down and he stared out the back window. His eyes gazed longingly at the unfamiliar English scenery. The new sights should have fascinated him, since he loved travelling. However, it seemed his heart only ached and his smile faded into a frown. He knew he was going to grow homesick very quick. He was already missing his partner, Elliot and his smart-ass remarks, similar to the ones Jordan was making. Maybe he could find ways to schedule trips to see them? It couldn’t be that hard to organize. Right?

Suddenly, the van pulled to a stop at a security gate. Jordan rolled down his window and greeted the woman that was at the guard station. He chatted up a storm with her before she allowed him to carry on and drive to the main parking garage. As they drove over there, Alexandre could see a lot of what he assumed to be recruits doing exercises, specifically push ups and crunches. There was one man that stuck out from all of them at the front, who was very tall. His hair was jet black, and he had basic sweats on. There were no distinctions that Alex could find that would reveal where he’s from. A question for another time, then.

The van parked in the garage, and all three of them climbed out of the vehicle. Alexandre hustled to the trunk to fetch his things. Once he had everything in order, Jordan waved to the medic with a cheerful smile.

“I gotta go meet up with the rest of our unit.” He then nodded towards Eliza. “Make sure he gets to Six in one piece!” The texan laughed when she glared playfully at him.

“You’re terrible, Jordan!” She called after him as he walked away. He only yelled in retort with pride.

“You know you love me!”

Ash motioned over her shoulder for Alexandre to follow her lead. He did so without hesitation and walked with her into the huge training facility. Everywhere they went, he saw unfamiliar faces, and every single one of them offered some kind of greeting. He wasn’t sure how he should respond. A few times he got friendly waves, others were nods of acknowledgement that he was new, and there were even a couple that shouted a cheerful, “Hey!”

“You’ll get to meet all of them soon enough.” Eliza stated calmly. She would occasionally glance over her shoulder to check on how he’s holding up. After all, going somewhere new can be rough, especially when you know nothing about it. “I’m sure they’re all going to like you. You and our other medic have a lot in common.”

Alex hummed in thought while he glanced around to get familiarized with the corridors. “How many of you are there, exactly?” He asked curiously.

Eliza fell silent and had to count. Then, she promptly answered, “Fifty-two of us. Well, fifty-three if we count you now.” She then tried to list off a few specifics to try and give Moreau a better idea of how those numbers were divided. “We’ve got operatives from all over. England, France, Russia, the United States, Italy, Australia, Spain, Germany, Brazil, you name it.”

The medic whistled in awe at all of the countries that were allied with the organization. “I wasn’t expecting so many. That’s wonderful.”

Ash shrugged her shoulders. “The huge mix of countries can cause problems sometimes, too, which you’ll eventually figure out with time.”

“What do you mean?” Alexandre questioned as he raised an eyebrow.

The woman took a deep breath and made her best attempt to come up with a simple example. Though, with how many clashes she’d experienced, none of them were relatively simple. All of them had their intricate complications. If she had to pick one, though? Maybe she should choose the one that’s been on the longest.

“Well, for example, we’ve had problems between Canada’s JTF2 and the Russian Spetsnaz because they don’t get along well and their country is at odds with each other. So, they have a pre-built disliking that is going to be very hard to shake away. That’s why it can be a downside to get so many countries involved.”

Alex understood. He pursed his lips before exhaling deeply. “Well, if this is going to be a global counter-terrorist operation… we kind of need all of these countries involved, right?” He wondered.

Eliza nodded. “Exactly. That’s why we push through it. Because the threat that we’re facing is much bigger than any political, religious, or personal situation that our team is facing. We all have to set our differences aside during our missions, if we want to make any progress or get any closer to stopping these guys.”

After roughly ten minutes of walking through the base, the two of them had finally halted outside of the entrance to a room. There was a nameplate on the door that read ‘Harishva Pandey’ on it’s golden surface. This must be Six’s office. Ash knocked on the door. They waited for a minute until they heard a voice call “Come in!”

Eliza opened the door and left it open for Alexandre, who thanked her kindly as he walked past her. After he entered, Ash stood at the door and looked over to the man who was typing away at his laptop.

“Six. Would you like me to stay, or can I go to the med center?” She asked politely. The man eyed her curiously.

“You can go, but why do you need to go there, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I wanted to let Doc know he’s gonna get some company soon.” She spoke completely opposite of how she had been previously. Around Harry, she became stone cold, walled off almost. “After that I’ll head to the simulation rooms and see how the rookies are doing.”

Harry allowed her to leave and gestured towards the door. Once Ash left the room, he closed his laptop, turned his chair to face the front of his desk, and waved Alexandre over to have a seat. The medic did so and crossed one leg over the other in his seat to try and get a bit more comfortable.

“It’s nice to finally meet you in person, Alexandre.” Harry folded his arms on his desk and gave the French man a quick once over to try and see if the other was nervous, or tense. He always strived to make sure everyone felt comfortable and safe when having private conversations. “What did you think of the place when you walked over here?”

Alexandre rested his hands on his legs. “It’s definitely larger than what I was expecting.” He smiled and brought a hand up to fix his hair, which was beginning to drop down into his vision. “But, I got to meet Eliza and Jordan. They were both very nice. Plus, there were some others that greeted me when I walked through.” He hummed happily. “The atmosphere is really wonderful from what I’ve seen.”

“That’s good!” Harry beamed with delight. “I’m glad you’re liking it here already.”

Moreau adjusted his glasses and pushed them up a bit further on his nose. So far, Six didn’t seem all that bad. He didn’t quite look as professional as he expected. To be fair, the interactions he had with Eliza and Jordan weren’t really professional either. It made sense though. Most military units could be like that. So, grouping a bunch of them up together for most of the year? That could bring a lot of unprofessional behavior, but also some fun bonding potential.

"Sorry about being late." Alexandre rubbed the back of his neck and laughed nervously. "I guess I didn't pick the best time to fly out, from what Eliza had told me."

Harry chuckled at his apology and waved it off dismissively. "It's quite alright. As long as you got here safely, then there's nothing to worry about." He opened a drawer by his feet and sifted through folders until he found the one he was looking for. He grabbed it, closed the drawer, and set the manilla folder onto the wooden desk. “I read up on your file while I was waiting for you to get here, and I must say I’m very impressed by what was there.”

Moreau’s eyes widened a bit and he gave a small, nervous titter. “I do my job like everyone else, really-”

The other man immediately interjected, “No, no, no. Don’t sell yourself short, Alexandre.” Harry demanded with a friendly smile as he opened the file and turned the documents around so the medic could see what had been written into his personal record. “You’re not the average soldier. You have a refined skill set, and your personality seems to really shine in your commanding officer’s reports.” He then proceeded to quote a line from a mission report and pointed at it with his index finger. “Alexandre Moreau has demonstrated that not only should a soldier be diligent and strong, but also compassionate and brave. He was willing to throw his life on the line time after time when I had seen others run away. He was willing to put everyone else before himself…”

Harry looked up from the document he had pointed to and tilted his head a bit. “Alexandre. Do you really think that what you have done is the response of a typical soldier?”

The French man sighed softly and folded his hands in his lap. He glanced away from Harry and tried to focus his gaze on something else. He always hated being in the spotlight during personal conversations. It felt like he was being called out, but he wasn’t certain what for.

“I was raised to believe it was.” He answered truthfully, with a hint of disappointment noticeable in his voice. “My father raised me to believe that everyone is worth saving, and everyone is more important than yourself when there’s danger. It’s most important to protect, not to run.” He shook his head in dismay. “I can’t count how many times I’ve seen men from other units try to save themselves and not help the people that are really in danger.”

Six leaned forward a bit more in his chair and he took a moment to process that small bit of information. “You don’t think you’re in as much danger as anyone else during those scenarios?” He asked curiously, but also in a cautious, almost weary way. He didn’t quite understand.

“I know I’m not.” Alexandre answered sternly. “My unit and I, we have protective gear, we have _everything_ that can protect us out there. We’re equipped for this kind of danger, but everyone else?” His lips jerked into a frown. “They don’t have anything… they’re defenseless.” He glared at Harry, and it was obvious by the look in his eyes that he was being absolutely serious. “ _We_ are supposed to be their defense when things go wrong. If we run away, what does that say about our military?”

When Alex slumped back into his seat and looked down at his hands, Harry let out a small hum of acknowledgement as he adjusted his glasses.

“I’ll admit this brought light on a new perspective I hadn’t seen yet.” He offered a faint smile. “You have a big heart, Alexandre. I don’t need to ask anything else to see that.” The man took a deep breath before exhaling it and toyed with the wedding band on his left hand. “It’s very rare to come across someone as compassionate and optimistic as you are in this line of work. Though,” His smile widened when he saw that he had the medic’s full attention again. “I’ve found that the ones I do stumble upon have the best stories.”

Soutien brought his hand to the back of his neck and scratched it anxiously. “I’m not sure any of my stories could be considered the best… but they are interesting, that’s for sure.”

Harry got up and walked over towards the back corner of the office, where there was a water dispenser. He took out two clear glass cups and turned to look over at Alexandre. “I’d love to hear one of them if you’re feeling up for it.” He eased the idea of sharing a bit more before they would take a break. It would give Harry a little more insight as to who he would be working with. “Would you like some water?”

The medic nodded and switched his leg positions so that he could be a bit more comfortable again. “Yes, please.” Moreau let his arms lay against the armrests of the chair and his hands grasped the edges. Six wanted to hear one of his stories, but which one was he referring to? Did he mean personal life stories or military life stories? There were different possibilities. “What kind of story are you looking for?”

Harry returned to his desk and kept one glass in his hand, while he set the other one down in front of Alexandre. The brunette thanked him kindly and took a sip as the leader of Rainbow gave him the answer he needed.

“Why don’t you tell me more about yourself, how you grew up before you joined the military?”

Soutien sucked in a breath of air and huffed it out as he tried to think of where to even start. That was a lot of ground to cover. “I grew up in a few places. I was born in Bordeaux, France, but then my dad was stationed in America. He had to work with some of their men in training operations. So, I lived in California for ten years.” He paused to take a huge gulp of his water. After he finished, he wiped his mouth with his sleeve to get any excess water off his chin. “When he was done doing training ops, he was moved back to France. We ended up living in Satory for a couple more years before we settled in Paris.”

Alexandre chuckled a bit. “It’s funny, actually. English was my first language, and French was my second.”

Harry laughed as well. “That is a bit odd when you think about it.” He tilted his head when a thought crossed his mind. “So, when did you decide that you wanted to enlist?”

Moreau groaned as he tried to think back almost twenty years to determine what exactly stirred his desire to become a combat medic. It was a far back memory, but it came back to him eventually and he lit up as bright as the sun.

“Seventeen years ago, when I started my first year of university. I wanted to become a normal doctor. Just work as a local physician in Paris.” Alexandre grinned and his hands loosened up. He seemed a lot more relaxed. “But during my first week of classes, there was someone in their Master’s program that was a teacher’s aide in a few of the courses I had. He was studying the same type of medicine that I wanted to go into.”

Harry nodded. “I’m guessing he played a large part in your decision.”

Moreau returned the nod and crossed his arms over his chest after he set the glass of water down on Harry’s desk. “There was one day out of that week where he was watching me work in the skills lab we had, and he said that my quick technique would work great for combat medicine.” He shrugged his shoulders at the memory and his smile faltered. “At the time I didn’t really think so, but I asked him how he would know. He said that it was because he wanted to work for the military and be able to save lives out in the field...not in an office.”

Six’s expression flickered with realization for a brief second. That phrase he just noted… that sounds an awful lot like their resident doctor. “Interesting. Was that what prompted your desire for military service, then?”

Alexandre shook his head. “No. He and I argued about it for a couple weeks.” He rolled his eyes when he remembered one of their arguments. “I had brought up that my dad had been in the French military and that he was always so busy that he never had time for family on most days.” The medic quirked a little grin. “He understood that I didn’t want to have that if I had a family, but he encouraged me to at least think about it. There were a lot of men who needed help fighting the bigger fights that we don’t always see.”

Moreau twiddled his thumbs to try and disperse his anxious energy. “About a month later, I asked him if he could teach me some of the tricks he had learned to help prepare for what would be ahead of me. He was thrilled, and my entire first year was spent with him in skills labs, at the library, researching technology, and doing everything we could to get every ounce of knowledge he had. Now, it’s sealed in my brain tight.” He mused at the end. “I honestly was a bit sad to have to say goodbye to him at the end of the year.”

“He had graduated after that year.” Harry guessed. Alexandre gave a small ‘yes’, and he continued on with what he wanted to say. “Do you by chance remember your mentor’s name?”

The French man eyed Harry with slight curiosity, but he nodded calmly. “Yes. His name was Gustave. Why do you ask?”

Six smiled cheerfully and rolled his shoulders back as he leaned to rest against the soft cushioning of his office chair. “I just like to see how much people can remember the things that made them want to do what they’re doing now. It’s fascinating.” He cleared his throat before adding afterward, “I think you’ll appreciate what the program has to offer, Alexandre. There’s a lot of opportunities for you to hone your skills in a much more rigorous environment. Plus, I have a strong feeling you might make some lifelong friends here. Almost everyone here has found strong bonds with each other.”

Alex’s lips quirked into a smile. “I can’t wait to get started.”

“Excellent.” Harry tugged out a few documents from underneath the folder and slid them across the desk to Alexandre. “Just sign these forms, and then you will officially be registered into Rainbow’s databases. Then you can start working as soon as you’re ready.”

The medic leaned over the wooden desk and used his right hand to sign all of the needed sections of the documents. He carefully read over all of the details. Essentially, he was becoming part of a top secret government program. Moreau wouldn’t be able to tell his brother back in Bordeaux. He would find a way to explain his relocation eventually.

After all of the papers were signed, Alex handed them to Harry, who stored them with his records in a safely locked drawer. In return, Six handed Alexandre two things: a Rainbow morale patch for his uniform, and a security ID card to keep on him. This was so that he could be given access to the base and be able to travel to and from work without any security personnel stopping him or causing delays.

“Welcome to Rainbow, Alexandre. It’s a pleasure to have you.” Harry spoke with a delighted tone. Moreau smiled brightly.

“Merci, Six.”


	2. The Doctor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Alexandre is officially transferred, he decides to go and check out the medical bay and meet his new coworker. However, he comes to find out that his "new" coworker happens to be someone he's very familiar with.

_ Meeting Harry was definitely not how I expected it to be. _ Alexandre thought to himself as he walked down the corridors of Hereford Base. His eyes wandered to look at all of the fine details of his surroundings, and he marvelled at how massive the place actually was.  _ Anytime I had to meet someone, it was so formal and strict, but that wasn’t that at all.  _ He scratched the back of his neck in slight confusion. It would take a while for Alex to get used to this new atmosphere.

“Coming through!” Alexandre yelped in shock as he barely managed to stumble out of the way and a guy raced past him down the hall. He couldn’t see much before the man turned the corner, but the medic noticed he was young, and clearly very quick.

“Fais attention!” Moreau yelled out to the runaway operative. However, right as the medic had composed himself, another man, without a second thought, shoved him aside and chased after the first one that ran past him earlier. Alexandre groaned in frustration as he rubbed the back of his head. He had been thrown against the wall, and it didn’t feel very good. “Merde!” It felt like the world was spinning and pain was seeping into the deepest regions of his skull. His head was throbbing while he did his best to recompose himself. If he didn’t have a reason to go see the medical center already, he had one now.

Being as careful as he could, Alexandre escorted himself through the corridors once more, making sure to keep one hand on the wall to keep himself steady.  _ Whoever those two were, I’m going to give them a lecture when I find them… _ The French man thought and took in a deep breath of irritation. A headache was the last thing he wanted before having to meet his new partner in the medical facility. There wasn’t anything that could be helped, unfortunately. He would have to push through it and make do with what he had.

Within five or so minutes, Alex had found himself at the entrance of the medical bay, and instead of the excitement he thought he would have, it was replaced with nervousness. Anxiety and fear, to be more precise. What if this other medic didn’t like him? What if Soutien didn’t like him? What if their working patterns are different and they argue over what’s better? He didn’t like those thoughts.

He shook his head.  _ Don’t overthink this, Alexandre… it’s probably going to go a lot better than this. Just breathe. _ He inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled his breath slow and steady. The brunette could feel his heart rate calm and his hands were less fidgety. That’s probably as close to composed as he was going to get. He still had that annoying pain in the back of his head.  _ Okay… on three, you open the door and introduce yourself. Une...deux...trois! _

Without a second thought, Soutien opened the medical bay doors and walked into the waiting area. It was empty. He couldn’t hear any voices, nor could he see any signs of life walking around the facility. Maybe the other medic wasn’t here currently?

_ Slam! _

There was a sound of metal clashing, but it wasn’t anything worrisome. Alex recognized it as the sound of a filing cabinet being shut, and he glanced around further. Maybe there was an office he hadn’t spotted?

Sure enough, a couple more steps into the waiting room and at the far end of it, there was an open doorway.  _ Maybe he’s in there? _ Alexandre calmly walked to the doorway and proceeded to check inside to see if anyone was in the room.

A man was crouched down and opening up a drawer at the bottom of the filing cabinet he had heard a moment ago. He seemed very preoccupied with reading the contents of whatever was in the folders to see that someone had come into the medical bay. There was a bit of white that highlighted along his hairline and some of it crawled over the rest of his youthful, dark black locks. His back was turned just enough that he couldn’t see the man’s face, but the lab coat, closed toed shoes, and pristine white latex gloves on his hands revealed that he was more than likely the medic he was searching for.

“Excuse-moi.” Moreau broke the silence and smiled kindly when the man shifted from his crouched position to look at who was talking to him. However, instead of his planned introduction, Alex’s voice got caught in his throat when he recognized the man in front of him. It may have been almost two decades, but all of his features were still as vivid as the day they first met. “Gustave? You’re the medic for Rainbow?”

The other French man beamed with delight and quickly got to his feet. He set aside the folder and walked a few steps to meet him at the door. “Alexandre! This is a pleasant surprise. What are you doing here?”

“I’m your second set of hands, apparently.” Soutien chuckled happily as he and Doc gave each other a warm embrace. When they separated, he explained further. “I was recruited to help with the medical staff, and work on my prototype gadget with your R&D director.” Alex smiled brightly. “But I wasn’t expecting to see you! How have you been?”

Gustave sighed warily and rubbed the back of his neck. “Very, very busy.” He hummed in amusement when his former apprentice snickered. “But I’m sure you know the pain all too well. After all, here you are.” He gestured to him with a hint of pride in his voice. “I feel like I’m seeing a ghost! It’s been almost… how long?” Doc jokingly asked.

“Seventeen years.” Alexandre mused and crossed his arms over his chest. “I didn’t think I would ever see you again after you graduated from the University.”

“I thought the same thing.” Gustave admitted and motioned for Alex to follow him as he went to go and grab some supplies from the storage closet by the beds. “After getting my degree I immediately enlisted and used my spare time to be in Doctors Without Borders. Eventually I became part of GIGN, and as of the past four years I’ve been with Rainbow.”

Soutien exhaled a deep sigh. “Wow,  _ Ces sont beaucoup _ ...” (That’s a lot) He replied, chestnut brown eyes wide with amazement. “In seventeen years you did all of that?” Gustave tittered at the question.

“Oui. I guess I like keeping myself busy.” He responded while stacking a few medical books into his arms. “The life as a doctor is never dull-”

“Except when there’s paperwork.” Alexandre added in unison with his colleague, who burst into nostalgic laughter. It had been a saying they used when they were studying with one another at the University of Paris. Each time they had to refer to documents and typing up medical papers, they would use that as their quote of the hour.

“You still remember.” Gustave noted, his lips turned into a kind smile.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Alex mused and offered to hold the books for him so he could reach a few other items on the shelves. After he was handed the books, he continued, “You were my biggest motivation to go into field medicine. I couldn’t even imagine being a family practitioner anymore.”

“I was your biggest motivation  _ after _ we had a whole month of belittling arguments and endless debates!” Doc smirked and stood on his toes to grab a fresh box of gloves that were just out of his reach. “You wanted nothing to do with the military before you met me, admit it.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Of course I didn’t. Back then with all of the family drama and tension with my father being in the military, you really expect me to want to go into military life?” He brought up his old explanation, shaking his head in dismay that he almost went in another path. “But I realized it shouldn’t be about me. If I want to be helping people, this is where I can do it better than any other doctor out there.”

Gustave sighed in content. “Ah, Alexandre, you still haven’t lost your youthful optimism.” He turned to look towards the brunette. “I’m glad to see that it’s still with you. We could use it around here.”

“Yeah, Eliza explained to me the things that happen around here. Well… very briefly, anyway.” Moreau glanced up to look at the bright, white fluorescent lights before looking ahead and following Doc back to his office. “Something about people getting hurt more in the base than out in the field?” He asked skeptically towards the end of the statement. The salt and pepper haired medic couldn’t keep a small ‘Ha!’ from escaping his lips.

“Unfortunately, it can be that way. More so when it’s testing day for everyone’s gadgets.” He informed his prodige. “The injuries can range from a small cut to something as severe as 3rd degree burns and electrocution.” Gustave set the items down in a chair by his desk and took the books from Alexandre. “Not the most ideal situation, but that’s what happens when you play with fire... you’re likely to get burned.”

Alex nodded in agreement and leaned against the wall, close to the doorframe. However, when he let his head fall against the hard surface of the wall, he winced and brought his hand to the back of his head. Doc immediately looked over at him with concern.

“Is everything alright, Alexandre?” He asked. The younger one waved his other hand dismissively.

“C’est bien, Gustave.” Moreau assured him. “It’s probably just a bruise.” He rationalized it, but the visible expression of pain was starting to throw it’s validity out the window. “I got shoved into a wall when I was on my way over here. Two men were chasing each other from what it looked like. I’m fine-” He cut himself off when he felt something damp on his fingertips. Alex pulled his hand out from behind his head and was shocked to see blood staining him.

“You’re not fine.” Gustave spoke sternly and stepped over to Alexandre, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him towards an open medical bed under the bright lights. The RAID specialist groaned at his mother hen attitude and tried to pull his hand away.

“Arrête ça, Gustave. (Stop it) I can take care of it myself.” Alex muttered childishly. However, his mentor completely disregarded his comment. He only laughed sarcastically.

“If you have eyes on the back of your head maybe.” He lectured before pointing to the bed. “Sit.” When Alex didn’t do as he said, he added on afterward. “You know very well I can get someone in here to  _ make you _ sit. Now either we do it my way, or we do it the hard way. Your choice, mon ami.”

Alexandre groaned and sat down on the medical bed, his back facing Doc. He knew for certain that the other wasn’t joking in the slightest. He had connections, and he could very well have someone force him to comply with his rules. So, he listened. He could feel Gustave moving aside some of his dark brown hair to try and get a better view of the open wound. The sensation of the latex touching his scalp never felt any less weird than the first time he felt it. “You’re still as stubborn as always…” He murmured softly. That got the other medic to smile to himself.

“As are you.” He mused, “But you are my student after all, so it makes sense.” Doc hummed as he tried to understand the full extent of the injury. It didn’t seem like a deep cut, and it wasn’t a big one either. As far as he could see, it was only a minor wound. It could be patched up by putting Neosporin on it and letting it heal on its own.

Soutien felt a bit uneasy in the silence while Gustave worked to fix him. It felt like a different silence than that one moment back in the van with Eliza and Jordan. This felt more… tense. Was Alexandre feeling pressured by seeing his mentor again? Was he trying to impress him without realizing it?

“Lucky for you, it’s only a superficial wound. No stitches or bandages.” Gustave’s voice broke the silence and pulled Alexandre out of his thoughts. “I’m assuming you know where to find Neosporin, ouais?” Soutien nodded promptly. “Good. Apply it onto the wound twice a day and it should be fully healed in a couple of days.”

“Oui,  _ maman _ .” (Yes, mom) Alex sassed playfully, which earned himself a light smack to the side of his head. Doc did not like being referred to as ‘mom’, apparently. The younger doctor let out a small giggle and turned to face Gustave, who only had an expression of mild irritation, but also dismay.

“If you call me maman again, I’ll make sure you have a reason to stay on that bed for a week.” He warned, though his growing smile was enough to show that he was kidding, and not actually threatening Alexandre. The brunette hopped off of the bed and crossed his arms over his chest.

“What? It suits you for a nickname, especially with such an attitude.” He backed away and cackled when Gustave went to slap his shoulder.

“I’ll make you want to call yours!” Doc smirked, and figured it had been a good comeback to Alexandre’s teasing and jokes, but he quickly noticed that his former apprentice had a little flicker of sadness wash across his features. He was going to ask about it, but Soutien immediately replaced it with a smile and shook his head as he stood up tall and proud.

“I doubt that, Gustave.”

Gustave decided to drop the name calling business and try to redirect the conversation somewhere else. Clearly there was a nerve that was struck somewhere, and he wasn’t particularly sure what it could have been.

While Alexandre searched the medicine storages for the Neosporin, Doc talked with him from the other end of the room where he was making the meds and restocking the carts that sat next to each one.

“So, what happened after I left the university?” He asked. Moreau glanced over his shoulder as he took the medication he had been searching for out of the cabinet.

“Well, I studied and went through all the courses you did. Got through them all with flying colors and enlisted.” Soutien found his way over to the bed that Gustave was making and sat down on a rolling stool that was nearby. “Because of my high scores and a need for medical personnel, I joined RAID.”

“RAID?” Doc’s voice sounded almost disappointed. “You chose a police force over counter-terrorism and global networks?”

Alexandre frowned at the comment. “You say that like it’s a waste.” He applied the ointment to the cut on the back of his head. When he didn’t hear a response from the other medic, it sparked shock into him. “You think I didn’t make a good decision?”

Gustave sighed quietly and made an attempt to rephrase his words. “I didn’t mean it like that, Alexandre. Being part of a police force and helping our law enforcement is great…”

“But?” Alex set the medicine beside him on the table and crossed his arms over his chest. Doc paused what he was doing and turned to face his apprentice.

“I thought we had talked about something bigger. Being part of a larger outreach and helping the world.” He carefully sat on the edge of the bed and rested his hands in his lap. “When we first met you were so enthusiastic about medicine and being able to save lives. You had even come around to the idea of the military and being part of the bigger fight.” Gustave exhaled a small breath. “What happened to that?”

Being reminded of what was said all those years ago brought a saddened expression onto Soutien’s face. His hands were fumbling with each other and he refused to make eye contact with his mentor.

“Ma famille.” (My family) Alexandre replied softly.

The fact that he was choosing to speak in their native tongue was a telltale sign that he was growing uncomfortable and possibly even trying to close off the conversation. It wouldn’t work in this case, given they’re both French speakers, but Gustave could tell that it was a habit. Perhaps he should play along with it.

“Ta famille?” (Your family?) Doc questioned calmly. “Qu’est-il arrive?” (What happened)

Alexandre had forgotten who he was talking to, and was thus thrown off his axis when his conversation partner was able to return the language he had tried to hide behind. It returned him to the reality that he was no longer in a place where he could hide behind all of his walls. It was scary for him.

“I-” He fell quiet and his hands were holding each other firmly in his lap instead of fumbling around. “My father got killed in action when I was in my third year of University…” Alex muttered out bitterly, his knuckles were turning white with how harshly his hands were squeezing. “He was part of our country’s ‘global outreach’ military operations. But you knew that already... When he got sent out to the United States for another joint training mission he went to New York City-” He paused. “There was… a disaster.”

Gustave’s eyes widened with disbelief. It was hard to imagine that anything bad could happen to someone you’re close with, but at the same time, with how long he had been working in the medical field, it was also expected that something bad always happens. Based on what he could see in Alexandre’s behavior: the hand squeezing, the sudden jittery bouncing of his leg, and his lack of eye contact all pointed to the conclusion that he was certainly not fully recovered from the tragedy.

“Alexandre...you don’t have to say anything else if you don’t want to.”

Soutien nodded faintly and silence befell the room. However, his physical actions never ceased. His leg was still bouncing, hands were clasped tightly onto one another, and his breathing was fairly inconsistent.

Doc carefully placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. When he finally got his friend to look up at him, he offered a sincere look of concern. “Maybe you should go get some rest.” He suggested. “This much stress isn’t good. You’ve had to do a lot the past few days, and the last thing you need is to be trying to keep yourself together in front of fifty other people.”

Alex sighed deeply and leaned back a bit to lie his back against the wall. He seemed a little more calm, but it was still obvious that he wasn’t one hundred percent normal. “I don’t have any lodging yet. Six was supposed to let me know where I’ll be staying at the end of the day.”

Gustave hummed in thought, and took a look at his watch. “Well that’s still hours from now.” He glanced around the room. Where could he go to rest? There weren’t a lot of options in a facility that was designed for training and weapons practice. When he caught sight of the other beds around them, Doc pursed his lips. It wasn’t ideal, but it couldn’t hurt.

“You can rest up in here. There’s plenty of beds available.”

The brunette chuckled in disbelief. “You- you want me to sleep here? In the medical bay?” 

The other medic smiled. “Why not? It’s the only place in the base that even  _ has _ beds to sleep in. Might as well take advantage of it.” He gestured to the empty region of the base they were in. “Besides, nobody has come in today except for you. It’s a perfect time to get some rest and not be disturbed by work.”

Alex shook his head. “I’ll pass.” He smiled a little, “But thanks for the offer.” He stood up and released his hands before flicking his wrists to get the tension out of them. “I should probably be doing something productive while I’m here. Sleeping around won’t be doing much of anything.”

“On the contrary,” Gustave noted. “Sleep is something we all need to keep ourselves going. Plus, working while being as tense and stressed as you are, it won’t help anybody.”

Soutien nodded in agreement and shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll be okay in a few minutes… the memories can be a little overbearing, that’s all.” He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at his friend curiously. “Do you by any chance have any coffee?” He asked. His tone sounded rather amusing. “That might help me feel better.”

Doc looked at him sternly, but there was still a playfulness to his posture. “Coffee isn’t going to fix all of that. You’ll still have to get rest at some point.”

“Hey, don’t doubt the wonders of coffee.” Alex lightly nudged the other. “I’m sure you’re in no position to judge either. I remember how much you were always drinking it when we were back in university. Every single paper we had to do you always had  _ at least _ two cups.”

Gustave gave in and chuckled. “I remember.”

“Still the same caffeine addict you were back then?” Alexandre mused.

“Well they wouldn’t call it an addiction if it was easily stopped now would they?” Doc joked before walking with him towards his office. He made the two of them a cup of coffee and handed one mug to Alex, who gratefully took it with a wide smile.

Alexandre spent the majority of the day getting familiarized with the Medical Bay. There were a lot of details he had memorized, such as the way Doc organized the shelves for the medications. At first he had recognized it being alphabetical order from left to right, but upon further inspection, there were more fine details. It wasn’t just alphabetical, but also categorized by symptoms, then dosages. The level of cleanliness and organization was not what he was used to. Back in RAID, his medical facility was kept nice and tidy, but he always struggled finding the right medications when he needed them. That certainly wouldn’t be a problem here.

What else was the set schedule that Gustave shared with him. There were blocked periods of the day that were dedicated to specific tasks. For example, he  _ only _ did physical examinations after 10:00 AM. Another included organizing patient files and updating them after each day. Sometimes it could take as little as twenty minutes or as much as two hours. It all depended on how busy the entire day was. While the idea of paperwork wasn’t thrilling, at least he knew when he would have to take care of it.

During the course of the day, Alex actually got to meet a few operatives from Rainbow. It was hard remembering their codenames, since he did meet a handful of them, but their first names were the best thing he could recall. There was Julien and Gilles, who were also GIGN and part of Doc’s team. They just wanted to say hello and get to meet Alexandre for themselves. He had the pleasure of meeting Max, who was just full of  _ energy _ for such a small guy. His profanity wasn’t quite appreciated, but he was able to get past it. The last one he was introduced to was Mike. His codename he remembered because he had asked personally that he be referred to as “Thatcher” until they were more acquainted. Alex understood and respected his wish. He was the only one who had any sort of injury. A minor one that was easily patched up.

Once Thatcher was sent on his merry way, Alexandre sighed in relief when Gustave turned the sign around that was hanging on the medical bay doors to show that they were no longer seeing patients for the time being. The older medic laughed at Alex’s expression of surprise at what happened over the course of just a few hours.

“If you think that was a lot, wait until you’re here on a busy day and I’m not here to help.” The long winded groan that Soutien let out said it all.

“How about you don’t remind me that this was an easy day?” Soutien peeled the latex gloves off of his fingers, balled them up, and tossed them over to the trash can as if it were a basketball. “At least tomorrow I’ll just be spending the day with R&D.”

Gustave chuckled and sat down in a chair near him. “I think you’ll be wanting to come back here after a little while.” He noted, but in a light-hearted tone. “Don’t get me wrong, our R&D director is very kind, but when you are spending a whole day just trying to get through details for your device, it can be tiresome.”

“More tiresome than a tiny Aussie calling me a ‘fucking french fry’ for accidentally pointing out his height?” Alexandre asked while trying not to laugh at the whole situation. He had never heard of someone using food as an insult, and in such a vulgar way nonetheless. Doc tittered when he recalled the sight.

“Mozzie is one of my more frustrating patients.” He informed Alex. “But he means well. He has his own things to worry about, and for good reason.” Gustave spoke in a warm, more familiar tone of voice. “He and his wife are expecting twins soon. He’s been really worried about how things will turn out.”

Moreau’s eyes lit up in delight. He always loved children. One time he had to babysit one of his teammate’s kids when he was back in Paris, and he almost wanted to adopt one after they went back home. It was just something that had always been with him.

“That’s awesome that he’ll be having his own little bundles of joy.” Alex spoke cheerfully. “I hope they don’t inherit his sass though, for the sake of both he and his wife’s sanity.” Both medics cracked up, finding the idea of twins mimicking their father’s behavior to be quite an ordeal.

“Let’s hope.” Doc joked before checking the time. “Has Harry sent you anything about where you’re staying for tonight?”

Alexandre pulled his phone out of his pocket to check his notifications. “No, not yet.” He shrugged his shoulders. “If he doesn’t get back to me then I’m sure I can just sleep here.” He was surprised when Doc gave him a look of  _ what the hell is wrong with you _ . “Quoi?” (What)

“You are  _ not _ spending the night in the Medical Bay.” Gustave told him sternly.

“Why not? Didn’t you just tell me earlier that I could rest here?” Alexandre asked accusingly, pointing towards his mentor. The other simply clicked his tongue and glared at him.

“ _ Rest _ . Not sleep for a whole night. These beds are not the most comfortable. Besides, you would be locked in here all night. I always lock the Medical Bay when I leave for the evening.” Gustave shook his head in dismay. “I can’t believe you would willingly want to sleep here.”

Guessing by the tone, Alex concluded that he had to sleep in the facility against his wishes, probably for work purposes. That was enough to make him lose part of his seriousness in the conversation.

“Just because you don’t like sleeping here doesn’t mean I won’t.”

Gustave scoffed and stood up to start locking things down for the rest of the evening. “If you want to sleep here, be my guest, but don’t complain to me about a sore back in the morning.” He muttered as he tried to reach and put something back on the top shelf of one of the storage units. Soutien laughed at the sight and walked over to stand next to him. He took the box of gloves from him and easily put them on the shelf he wanted. When his mentor glared at him, Alex smirked.

“Fine by me, Doc.” He mused. “Also, maybe you should invest in the boots with a little more heel.” The other teased, which caused Gustave to jokingly punch his shoulder and scowl. It didn’t stay for long though, because the two of them started to share laughter.

Eventually, Alexandre left the Medical Bay after he was able to convince Gustave that he would find a place to stay for the night. When he did leave though, Alex couldn’t help but feel happy. Despite being exhausted out of his mind, he held the happiest smile on his lips and he explored the base.

He had missed this, having someone to relate to. Sure, he had friends after Gustave had graduated from the University of Paris, but none of them shared the connection that the two of them had during that one year. He had built similar friendships and even a family bond with his unit in RAID, but he had always missed the medical rants and insane scenarios that he and Gustave had been through. Having that back was comforting. It made Alex feel like this whole transfer situation into Rainbow would go a lot more smoothly than he had anticipated. So far, he’s been right.

Soutien wound up walking all over the base, trying to grasp which areas were where, and how to make his way around. He spent roughly an hour and a half just wandering around, being stuck in his head. It wasn’t until he heard shuffling a lot of loud talking from a nearby room that he stopped to see what was going on.

Turns out he had gone back around towards the training rooms. These ones in particular were for the recruits. However, he could see through the bulletproof glass leading into the room that Julien was instructing them, wearing all of his gear. They were in a shooting range.

Alexandre double checked the light that was above the entry point to the room. It wasn’t on. That meant he was safe to enter, so he did. Though, he stayed off to the side and watched the GIGN specialist lecture the crowd of rookies. He noticed Julien glance in his general direction, acknowledging that someone had entered the room, but he didn’t stop his speech to say so.

“Alright. All of you have proven over the past few weeks that you can do what you’re told, and you can properly shoot a gun. You know how to defend yourselves, and what to do when you’re under heavy fire. You know how to do things for yourselves.” Alexandre listened with interest, his eyebrows raised slightly and he adjusted the rounded glasses that rested on his nose.

“But now you need to prepare yourself for when you  _ can’t _ do things for yourself. What if you have to put your faith into somebody else? Can you trust your fellow teammates?” There were a few nods of unison in most of the recruits, but some looked skeptical at the ones standing near them. “Well, let’s test if you’re telling the truth.” He gestured towards the range behind him. “I’m going to pick one of you to demonstrate and then we’re going to try this as a group.”

Julien glanced around the group of recruits, surveying them closely. He saw one standing rather confidently and appeared to feel ready for whatever exercise they were about to endure. With a knowing smile, he pointed to said recruit. “Nick, right?” The recruit nodded with pride. “You’ll be first.”

Alexandre observed the recruit step over to the range and followed with the rest of the recruits to get a better view. Rick had remained behind the safe zone like he was told, and was a bit curious when Julien took all but one bullet out of his .457 magnum pistol and handed the weapon to him.

“Do you trust me, Nick?” Julien asked calmly. The recruit nodded, but there was the faintest hint of hesitation. Alex could see it just as well as Julien can. That was part of being a medic, seeing discomfort. However, the discomfort soon spread to his own body as he watched the French trainer walk down range and take the place of a target. He stood with his hands behind his back and the man smiled devilishly. “Good. Because I want you to shoot me.”

“What?!” The entire group of recruits erupted into whispers and throwing around accusations of this being some sort of joke. Hell, even Alex was tempted to interrupt and call this off, but by the way Julien was standing and how he wasn’t worried about the recruit in front of him, the medic backed off and kept his distance.

“Did I stutter?” Julien asked as he flicked his shield down from his helmet to protect his face.

Nick stared at him in disbelief and refused to pick up the revolver. “You’re insane! Your vest won’t protect you from this! Not with how close you are!”

That was a valid point. Julien was rather close for his vest to stop the bullet from a .457 from penetrating his body. If that was the case though, then why would he tell the recruit to shoot him? He had to have a reason, right? There’s no way he would willingly let himself get shot without knowing what he was doing.

Julien chuckled. “So, you don’t trust me.” He emphasized on the statement the recruit had made only seconds ago. “If you do, then shoot me. If you don’t, step back.” The recruit didn’t move. Nick just stared at the revolver on the table in front of him. “If you choose to back down, there’s no shame in it. I’ll choose someone else.”

Nick hesitantly backed away after a few moments, shaking his head in dismay. “This is fucking crazy. I can’t do it.”

The French man watched calmly and even gave a quiet laugh from witnessing the recruit refuse listening to his orders. This was the only time he found it acceptable. “Alright, who’s next?” Nobody stepped forward. Not a single recruit wanted to test this seemingly crazy exercise. Julien frowned in disappointment, but immediately smiled when he caught a glimpse of Alexandre standing off to the side.

“Soutien!” Alex glanced at him curiously and tilted his head. “Want to give it a go?”

Alexandre knew that there was a deeper meaning behind the whole thing, and he figured the only reason Julien was asking was because he needed someone to be used as a demonstration. Based on how he was acting, all of this was entirely safe. The recruits just didn’t trust that he was telling the truth. It was understandable.

“Sure.” All of the recruits gave him odd looks.

“Don’t do it! Are you crazy?!” One of them had the audacity to yell at him. Alexandre scoffed and turned around to face them when he got to where the table with the revolver was at.

“I would consider thinking twice before yelling at your new medic.” He lectured before turning back around to face Julien. He exchanged glances with the other specialist and hummed in understanding when he noticed Julien flick his eyes down to his vest. Alex focused on the vest itself and he smiled. A tactical ceramic plate. The outline was barely visible. You would have to look hard to notice.

Moreau confidently picked up the revolver, pulled the hammer back with his thumb, and aimed down range. He flicked the red light on to signal that the range was being in use and aimed directly at Julien’s chest. There were a few startled gasps and even a few yelps of fear as he pulled the trigger.

_ Bang! _ The bullet fired, but there were no sounds of pain. Only the sounds of shattering glass. The bullet fell off of his vest, and Julien stood proudly, smiling with approval at Alexandre.

Rook lifted his shield away from his face and Alex flicked off the range light. “If you all had done what Specialist Soutien had, you would have noticed that I was wearing a tactical ceramic plate under my vest.”

The recruits were all stunned, and Nick was fuming. He felt like he had just been insulted and that he was being referred to as unintelligent. Though, none of them dared to say anything towards their instructor, and certainly not to Alexandre after he just proved that there was nothing to worry about to begin with.

“We’ll try this again tomorrow. You’re all dismissed.” He yelled to all of his ‘students’. They all gladly left the room and within a minute it was just the medic in the room with him. Julien started removing his gear, starting with his helmet.

“That was definitely an eye opener.” Alex joked as he walked over to go and stand closer to Julien, who was laughing at how the training scenario went.

“I always do this with each group of recruits. It’s to see who can trust their teammates with anything. It’s an important thing for them to learn, especially in this line of work.” Alexandre nodded in approval. “How was your first day working in the Medical Bay?” He asked curiously.

Alex grinned. “It was long, but it was nice seeing Gustave.” Rook looked at him as he started to take off the vest.

“You two seem to know each other really well. You were in sync when I was there.” The younger medic shrugged his shoulders and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yeah, he and I met way back. We were best friends for a year before he graduated University. After that, we hadn’t seen each other for almost seventeen years.” Julien whistled. “I wasn’t expecting to see him here, but it was a nice surprise.” He offered his hand out for a handshake. “Julien...Nizan, right?” He asked cautiously, not entirely sure if that was his full name. However, he exhaled in relief and smiled brightly when the other nodded and shook his hand.

“Yup. You’re Alexandre, right?”

Alex nodded. “That’s me.”

Rook tossed his vest aside and groaned with satisfaction having the heavy gear be lifted off his body. “Glad to see you’re settling in well. Not everyone has a good first day.” He then unstrapped the knee padding and tossed those into his duffle bag with the rest of his gear. “So, Alex. Do you have a place to stay for the night?”

_ Merde. _ Soutien laughed nervously and glanced away. “I knew there was something I forgot to do…” Julien snickered and gave him a small, exasperated expression. “Gustave told me to do it, too, and I forgot.”

Thankfully, the blonde man next to him had a solution. “Well, let’s make sure he doesn’t want to kill you tomorrow morning.” He mused. “You can come stay at my place. I live in an apartment with Gilles. There’s a guest bedroom you can use until you have a place of your own.”

“Thanks.” Alexandre glanced around the shooting range when Julien looked towards him.

“It’s no problem at all.” Rook replied cheerfully. “Let me just get this all squared away and then we can leave for the night.”

Soutien grinned. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

When Julien had finally packed up all of his gear, Alexandre walked with him so that he could put it away in the locker room. This was a place he hadn’t been to yet in the base. There were wall lockers quite literally everywhere in the large room. He could count maybe a hundred lockers, maybe more, and multiple of them were claimed by the same operators. Sure enough, “Rook” had three lockers. He opened the last one and put his duffle bag inside of it before shutting it and locking it.

“So, does everyone have their own set of lockers?” Alex asked curiously, looking down the rows to try and see whose lockers were where. The other French man hummed in thought.

“I’m pretty sure we all do,” He began, “but you might be an exception. Six probably hasn’t given you your lockers yet.”

“Well, considering he didn’t even give me accomodations for the night like he said he would, I’m not surprised…” Moreau deadpanned and pushed his glasses further up on his nose.

“It wouldn’t be the first time he’s done that.” Both of them jumped slightly at the feminine voice that echoed in the locker room. A moment later, the woman that had spoken to them came from around one of the other rows of lockers and smiled at them. She was hispanic, had long black hair, with a bandana tied around her head, and her height was quite alarming, considering she was taller than Alexandre by about two inches.

“Salut, Amaru.” Julien greeted happily. “I thought you were off today?”

She laughed lightly. “Technically I was, but I wanted to make sure Goyo didn’t try to kill himself with his shields in R&D training again.” Her and Rook chuckled at the thought. “He didn’t, but there was a close call with an impact grenade…” she trailed off and sighed in dismay. “That boy is something else.” She then turned to Alexandre and smiled brightly. “Oh! I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Azucena, but everyone else usually calls me Amaru.”

Soutien smiled in return. “Alexandre, but Alex is fine, too.”

Amaru patted his shoulder before pointing out the French colors branded on it. “For someone who’s French, your English is spot on. I can barely hear the accent.”

Alex laughed nervously. “I would hope so. English was my first language.” Rook looked at him with amazement.

“Really?” When the medic nodded, Julien looked just about as happy as a kid who got their favorite toy for Christmas. “I’m not the only one. Gilles and Gustave always messed with me about it.”

Amaru silently chuckled at the two of them. “Well, it’s nice to see a new friendly face. Can’t wait to see what you can do.” She beamed with delight. “But I should get going. I promised Mira I would see her before I leave to talk about making adjustments to my hook.”

Julien groaned at that. “Great...now I have to worry about you gunning me down right at the start again.” He muttered. She smirked and playfully ruffled his hair.

“Just don’t let me gun you down then.” Amaru waved goodbye to the two of them and left the locker room. Rook and Soutien sat in silence for a few seconds. Then, Alexandre finally piped up with a slightly anxious expression on his face.

“She’s tall…”

“Very…” Julien replied weakly. “Just wait until you have to fight her. She’s on the offensive team.”

Alex gave a hesitant smile and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well… I hate to break it to you, but so am I.” He did playful jazz hands, hoping Julien wouldn’t get too mad. “Surprise?”

Rook glared at him, but said nothing at first. All he did was analyze the medic and scowled. Eventually, he sighed and let his seriousness fade into a tired frown.

“If you’re in the scenarios tomorrow… I’m quitting.” Alex laughed and Julien threw his hands up in defeat. “I already have to deal with Azucena, and probably every other gun-ho attacker tomorrow. Last thing I need is someone who I haven’t met with a gadget I’ve never seen.”

Alexandre smirked and patted his shoulder as they left the locker rooms. “I won’t be in your training simulations tomorrow. I have to meet with your R&D director.”

“Merci, Dieu.” (Thank God) Rook sighed in relief. “Let’s just go home. I’m so tired.”

Alex nodded in agreement. “Moi aussi.” (Me too)


	3. R&D

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexandre gets to meet the director of Research and Development, along with a few others. Unfortunately, his first day takes a bitter turn when things don't turn out the way he thought they would.

Alexandre groaned as he began to wake from his deep sleep. He could hear the obnoxious ringing of his cell phone on the bedside table, but tried his best to ignore it. Unfortunately, the ringing persisted and it was only a matter of time before the brunette gave in and sat up. He glanced over to the bedside table to see who was calling. The caller ID was labelled “Six”.  _ Of course _ . 

He immediately picked it up and brought the device to his ear. “Bonjour.” Alex greeted with a hoarse tone due to his fatigue.

“Well good morning to you, too.” Harry replied jokingly. “Hope you’re ready for your first day. I want you to be meeting with our Research and Development Director Elena Alvarez. She’ll be able to help you get your gadget ready for the development phase.” He ordered. “But first, I want you to come to my office when you get to headquarters. There’s someone else you’ll need to meet, since he’s going to be working with you a lot during the testing phase.”

Alex rolled his shoulders to get the tension out of them. “I’ll be there.” He answered curtly. “I’ll be at the base in about an hour.”

“See you then.” They both hung up the call and Soutien tiredly tossed his phone to the end of the bed. He did not feel awake enough for all of the paperwork and constant explaining he’ll have to do for his AED Gloves.

After spending the next forty-five minutes getting himself put together, Alexandre waited out in the living room of the apartment for Julien to carpool him to the Rainbow headquarters. He tried to keep himself occupied on the couch by scrolling through his phone, checking messages, emails, you name it. Eventually, he gave up and decided to try and occupy himself by pacing around the room. He was never the type of person to be able to sit still for a long period of time. It made him paranoid. So, he did what he did best: multitasking. Soutien paced back and forth, thinking of all the possible scenarios he could encounter for the day.  _ Who was he going to meet? What all was he expected to do? Was he going to spend all day on his gadget, or was there going to be something else? _

All of these questions repeated themselves over and over again. It wasn’t until Alexandre heard a door open and close down the hall. He halted his pacing, dropped his hands to his side, and turned his head to look at who was approaching down the hallway. He expected to see Rook, but instead, he was surprised to see Gilles. He was dressed rather casually: jeans, a gray shirt, and basic running shoes.

Alexandre raised a brow questioningly. “Où est Julien?” (Where is Julien) He asked. “Il n'est pas encore prêt?” (He isn't ready yet?)

Gilles sighed in discontent and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Il a trop dormi…” (He overslept) He explained, and it was obvious how tired he was by the way his voice sounded. It was rough and scratched, not like how he heard it the other day. “Je t'emmène au travail.” (I’ll take you to work.)

“Oh.” Alex smiled a little and shrugged his shoulders at the situation. “D’accord. Merci, Gilles.” (Okay. Thank you.)

Montagne nodded and tried to return a smile, though it was very weak. “Pas probleme, Alexandre.” (No problem.)

Soutien gathered up the things he needed for the day: notebooks, blueprints, gadget analysis, experiment journals, pretty much anything that he felt was necessary for the extensive conversations he would be having with the R&D director. Throughout his life, if there was anything he learned, it was that being too thorough was always better than not being thorough enough. He was hoping that the Director saw it that way, too.

When he and Montagne were ready to go, Alexandre slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out of the apartment alongside his new acquaintance. They didn’t say much during the drive over, but whenever they did talk, it was light-hearted and about things they did back in France. Gilles didn’t seem like the talkative type, and he asked cautiously if it had anything to do with experiences growing up. Thankfully, Monty didn’t take it harshly, and explained that it was because at Rainbow, he has a hard time communicating due to his improficiency with English. It was rather broken and unintelligible. Alexandre understood that all too well. He shared his story about how he had to learn French  _ after _ he learned English, so he felt really strange growing up around other French kids after returning from America.

The conversation would have continued past that point, but they both ended up dropping the discussion when they got to the Rainbow headquarters. Alex said goodbye to Gilles and thanked him again for giving him a ride. The other told him not to worry about it and drove off to head back to his apartment.

_ Okay. _ Alexandre turned to head towards the entrance of the base.  _ Now it’s time to meet the R&D Director I’ve heard so much about. _

He made his way through the base a lot quicker than last time, since he had slowly become familiar with the layout for their base of operations. The medic felt prepared, for once in his life. It was a feeling that wasn’t common, especially in his line of work, but it was something that he enjoyed when it did come around. For once, he was ready to talk about one of the many things that apparently brought him here. This was where he could show off what he had been working on, and he would do it proudly.

However, as soon as he got face to face with the doorway leading to Harry’s office, that pride quickly vanished and nervousness surfaced.  _ It’s nothing to worry about. _ He assured himself. Alexandre could feel his knees weaken.  _ It’ll be just like how you talked to Harry yesterday, right? There’s no reason to be nervous. _ The reasoning sounded fair, but deep down it did nothing to calm his worrying heart, which raced erratically. What if he ended up wasting her time, and she doesn’t approve of the gadget? What if all of his work is thrown out because there wasn’t enough proper research and development? There’s no way that could happen.

Alexandre shook his head and tried to shake away the thoughts as one of his hands tussled with his hair. He shouldn’t be this worried. After all, isn’t this a big reason why they recruited him? Because of his gadget? Sure, Harry mentioned his skill sets were part of it, but he also talked about his intuitive design behind the gadget he was prototyping. He would be fine.

_ Pull yourself together. _ He lightly pinched his hand to get him to snap out of his anxiety rush. Once he was back to reality, he shook his arms a bit to ease away the tension and put on a smile. This was going to be fine. He could do this. After one final, deep breath, Alexandre knocked on the office door.

“Come on in!” Harry’s voice was easily recognizable. It sounded as bright and chipper as ever. It was definitely reassuring. Soutien did as told and let himself in before promptly closing the door behind him. When he looked towards his desk, however, the two chairs in front of Six were occupied. Both by operatives he had yet to meet.

“I...didn’t keep you waiting, did I?” Alex asked faintly, realizing he was the only one missing from the meeting up until now. Harry shook his head, got out of his big, leather ‘boss’ chair, and gestured for the medic to claim the seat.

“Not at all! Please, take a seat. There’s a lot to discuss.”

The RAID officer started over to the seat and hesitantly sat down, crossing one leg over the other. He glanced over at the two unknown operatives, one male and one female. The male was certainly rugged and burly. He was lean, but still well-built. He was pulling a lumberjack styled look with his beard, and the hair on his head was very messy, unkempt. Though, the only form of identity he could find about the man was from the German flag that was sewn into his black jacket.

The woman next to the assumed German was very clean, almost pristine. She was wearing casual attire: jeans, tshirt, and closed toed shoes. Her copious dark brown locks of hair rested against her shoulders, and her returned gaze towards Alexandre was far more welcoming. The only thing that contradicted her attire was the small smudge of oil and dirt on her left cheek.

“Alexandre, this is our R&D Director Elena Alvarez,” The medic shook her hand and gave a firm nod to greet her without interrupting Harry. “and this is one of our electrical engineers, Specialist Dominic Brunsmeier.” The German gave him a much firmer handshake. “Both of them, along with Doctor Kateb will be assisting you in finalizing your prototype for your gadget.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Alexandre.” The French man was surprised to hear her properly pronounce his first name. Though, hearing her slight hispanic accent, he began to realize that the rolled “r” in his name was quite common in both French and Spanish. He smiled cheerfully.

“And you as well, Miss Alvarez-”

The Director waved a hand dismissively, “Mira or Elena is fine.”

“Okay.” Alex nodded and turned a bit to address the other. “Is there something you’d like me to call you?”

The German man chuckled quietly and shrugged his shoulders. “Everyone usually just calls me Dom for short, but Bandit is fine if you want to use codenames.”

Alexandre’s smile widened. He jokingly replied with, “I think first names will be fine. You can call me Alex.” Dominic nodded with content and leaned back in his chair. He rested his arms behind his head and looked towards Harry.

“So, what’s the plan?”

Harry had a small flicker of intrigue. “Well, I wanted Alexandre to try and explain his gadget to us and determine where we should start with the R&D process. As far as I’m aware, you already have your basic planning and blueprints sorted out, right?” When Alexandre nodded, he continued. “So, I want you to get together with Specialist Brunsmeier and Director Alvarez and see what your next steps are.” He explained while leaning against a table a bit away from his desk.

Mira pursed her lips and hummed in deep thought. When prompted for her thoughts by Six, she spoke up confidently. “Are you sure we should start the development process right now? We still have  _ other _ projects under development and adding another one might be a bad idea. Especially if we might have to restart the process because of these other projects.”

Harry sighed and his hands gripped the table. He hadn’t taken that under consideration. “That’s a good point.” He brought a hand up to rub his jaw line as he tried to contemplate what other options they could have. “For now, let’s focus on talking about the gadget and it’s potential purposes and flaws that will need to be fixed. We won’t be designing prototypes, but we can start planning for one. Then, once our other projects are out of the way, we’ll focus heavily on Alexandre’s gadget development.”

Alexandre frowned in slight disappointment. “Why exactly are these projects hindering my own? What about them is making us have to wait?” When the R&D director and Six went silent, both he and Bandit exchanged a skeptical glance. Soutien returned his gaze to Harry and he glared. “Sorry for sounding ungrateful, but isn’t my gadget one of the big reasons you recruited me into the program? Why would we delay the development of it if it’s as important as you say?”

“We have a few confidential projects that are taking priority at the moment.” Mira reasoned and calmly focused her attention towards Moreau. “These confidential projects are paramount for Rainbow and it’s going to change a lot about how we’ve been doing what we do.” This caught Dominic’s interest and he looked at her with intrigue. “We can’t reveal any details at the moment, but what I can say is that they need to be finished before we take on too many R&D projects.”

The French medic sighed in defeat and leaned back into the chair to relax. He quickly flicked his vision between Elena and Harry before adjusting his glasses and crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine… but if I’m not going to be doing a lot of R&D development, then am I going to be full time medical staff? Originally you only wanted me as an on-ground aide for the base.”

Harry took a moment to ponder if that would be the best course of action. If he was full time medical, then that could mean better care for the whole base, but at the same time, there were other matters that Alexandre could be better suited to handle while these projects are under development.

“Six.” Elena addressed their leader. “If I may,” Harry nodded calmly. “I think that’s our best choice. Having Alexandre get familiar with the Medical Center would be great, especially when Phase 2 for the plan is right around the corner.”

Harry pushed himself off the table he was leaning on. “Very well. Alexandre, for the time being, focus all of your time into making a routine in the Medical Bay. Have Doctor Kateb assist wherever necessary.”

Moreau was far from happy. It had nothing to do with him becoming full time on medical staff. He adored working with Doc in the past, and was certain he would enjoy it again. It was the fact that his project had been pushed off to the side completely. Why hadn’t Harry brought up the possibility of the other projects they had been working on? Maybe then he wouldn’t have bothered with bringing all of his delicate research if he had known that it wouldn’t have been necessary today.

Harry glanced over to Alexandre. It seemed he had been uncharacteristically silent after hearing his orders. “Do you have any questions?”

Soutien’s mellow expression shifted to have a frown of disappointment, and perhaps a small hint of frustration. “A few, sir. But those can wait until later.”

Six raised a brow questioningly. Alex’s tone had changed, that much he could tell, but the attitude was the same as when he walked in, as far as he saw. “You can speak your mind here, Alexandre. This is a private space.” Bandit and Mira both nodded in agreement.

“Might as well get it out now, kid.” Dominic shrugged.

The French brunette exhaled a soft breath and held his hands on top of his lap as he leaned forward. He took a moment to really think, then allowed himself to speak. “I don’t understand why you didn’t warn me that my project might be delayed. I feel like I brought all of my work here for nothing after what we just talked about!” He gestured to his bag full of journals and blueprints that lay beside him on the ground. “Can I at least know what projects are causing mine to be set on the back burner?”

“I know you were really excited to start working on your gadget,” Harry began steadily and stepped a bit closer to the three of them. “But what we have going on right now is going to be a huge change for  _ everyone _ in Rainbow. A good change.” He hummed in thought as he tried to come up with a better way to explain what he was talking about. “This project Mira and I are working on is going to improve many parts of our program. R&D, Fitness, Training, Collaborations, Accomodations, and Medical.” Alex’s eyes widened in slight curiosity and he relaxed a bit more. “We can’t reveal anything else, but trust me when I say that once this is done, you will be more than satisfied with the results. After that, we can focus all of our attention on gadget creation and upgrades.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Elena noted with a cheerful smile before turning to look at Alexandre face to face. “Six is right. This is a big project, but the end result will be worth the wait. It won’t be long before we’ll have everything back on track.”

Dominic offered a sympathetic smile to the new medic. “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t know shit either.”

Soutien glanced at Bandit, then between Mira and Harry. He was a little less frustrated than he had been, but he was still on the fence about all of this. This wasn’t originally what he thought he would have to do. It was an arrangement he was willing to accept though.

“Alright.” Alexandre looked to Six. “I trust you guys. If you say that this will really improve Rainbow and make things better, then I’ll take your word for it.” His hands fumbled with each other. “But I don’t want any more surprises. Not for a little while, at least.”

Harry nodded. “There won’t be any more surprises, Alex.” He tilted his head towards the left. “Was there anything else?”

Soutien shook his head. “No,” He then quickly corrected himself. “Well, not about R&D. The rest is about what we talked about yesterday.”

Six hummed. “What about it?”

Alexandre gave him a deadpan expression.  _ Did he seriously forget? _ “You were supposed to get back to me with a place to stay before the end of the day yesterday.” He crossed his arms across his chest and huffed a frustrated breath. “If Julien hadn’t offered me the spare bedroom in his apartment, I would have been sleeping in the Medical Wing.”

Harry grimaced at his own mistake and rubbed his forehead with his right hand. That wasn’t the first time that he had forgotten something like that, and he hated to admit it. “I’m so sorry, Alex. I wasn’t able to find a place for you yet, and I had planned to let you know. I guess it slipped my mind.” He removed his hand from his face and looked straight to the medic. “You’ll have to see if you can stay with a fellow operative for a little while longer until I can find some accommodations for you.”

Soutien sighed in dismay. “I’ll ask Julien and Gilles if they’d mind me staying a bit longer.” He replied. Harry smiled kindly.

“Don’t worry. I’ll find a place for you soon enough.” He looked at everyone. “You’re all dismissed. Mira, I’d like to talk to you more about the projects.” The leader then turned to Bandit. “Dominic, you and Alex can start going over his ideas in your spare time and start bouncing ideas off one another. It will help get your plans more refined until we can officially start the development process.”

The German man nodded and glanced towards Soutien. “Meet me at the engineering lab after your shift.” He stood up and pushed the chair close to the desk. “I’ll give you my contact info and we can talk.”

“Will do.” Alex responded cheerfully. After Dominic left the office, the medic realized that there was still one question that hadn’t been brought up, and he stood up before addressing Harry. “Six-”

“Please, call me Harry.” He interjected with a kind grin.

Alexandre chuckled softly. “With all due respect, I’m calling you Six. You should get used to it.” Harry seemed mildly shocked. Mira snickered a tiny bit before both of them let him continue. “I forgot to ask, Julien had talked about training simulations. Are those only for operatives with their gadgets finished?” He wondered curiously as he put his hands into his pants pockets.

Harry scratched the back of his neck before moving to reach for his laptop beside him on the table. “At the moment, yes.” He then opened it up, typed in his password, and searched for something as he continued on, “We use the training simulations to test our operatives’ abilities to use their gadgets in a combat scenario, while also simultaneously training their ability to work with others.” Once he found what he was looking for, he turned the laptop so Alexandre could see the contents on the screen. It was a paused video, from a bird’s eye view. “All of the operatives in this scenario all have their own unique gadgets, and some of them counter others. So, I put them head to head to test how they will do against an opposing gadget.”

“Ah,” Soutien smiled and hummed with interest. “So, you use the simulations to try and find possible improvements for the gadgets too? Not just operatives’ teamwork.”

Harry grinned. “Exactly.”

“How do you track if they’ve died in combat? They would die eventually, wouldn’t they?” Alex questioned and ran a hand through his hair before pushing up his glasses.

“Right now we use digital imaging and an alert device on their wrist.” Mira answered while getting up to play some of the footage when Six allowed her to. “Right now, there-” she paused the video and pointed to where Julien was peeking around a corner. There was someone hiding behind Gilles’ shield and peeking around as well. “Watch.” When she played the video, both Rook and the person behind Montagne shot, and they both dropped their guns. She paused and pointed out the devices on their wrist when they became visible. “The device blinks red on both their devices. So, they’re both out.”

Alexandre gave a small ‘huh’. “They traded shots.”

“Yup.” Elena nodded. “They both scored headshots, so regardless of who hit first, they’re both out of the simulation.”

Soutien raised a brow. “Those sensors on their gear, they’re not very accurate.” He noted as he had to squint at the screen. Harry and Mira both gave him intrigued looks.

“What do you mean?”

Alex huffed when he couldn’t find a good way to point it out. “Do you have other camera perspectives? I can’t really point it out from this view.” Harry nodded and changed to a first person point of view from someone named ‘Valkyrie’ on the body cam. They were looking down a corridor at an enemy, labeled ‘Zofia’. There were obvious white sensors marked on their gear, and only in critical areas: head, torso, and lower legs. “Look,” The brunette used his index finger to point at the white marks. “From a medical standpoint, these sensors aren’t going to take into account a lot of lethal hits.” He pursed his lips. “If ‘Zofia’ were to get hit in the upper thigh or near her abdomen, she wouldn’t be marked dead, when in reality she could be.”

Elena took a deep breath and thought about what he was saying. “That’s true… but I’ve tried to think of a lot of different methods to calculate the data and this is the best thing I could come up with for now.” She looked at Alexandre curiously. “Do you have a better idea in mind?”

He tapped his chin in thought. “Maybe…” The medic turned to face Mira. “Is it possible to create some sort of… suit beneath the armor? Like a skin tight fabric suit with micro sensors?”

The hispanic woman’s eyes widened and she was smiling from ear to ear. “Yes! Completely possible! If I could design that suit with the micro sensors and program the data to register certain levels of damage, we could get far more accurate results!”

Harry looked to Mira. “How soon do you think you could develop this?”

Elena thought deeply and closed her eyes as she tried her best to take everything into account. “Well… if I can get Grace to help with the programming and Jack to work with me on the suits, we could get a trial test up and running in a matter of weeks. We would have to be working all day until then to get it ready for a test run.”

Harry rubbed his jawline and looked towards the ground. “If you can work on the R&D side of things, I can figure out everything else for our bigger project. It’s already almost in phase 2, so we shouldn’t have any more surprises during phase 1.” he confidently pointed at Elena. “Get Specialists Nam and Estrada. Tell them that this is a priority 2 project. I’ll talk to a few operatives to help me put the final pieces of our other project together.” The R&D director nodded happily and Harry looked to Alexandre. “Excellent work, Alex. You’re proving to have a lot more tricks up your sleeve than I thought.”

Soutien smiled proudly. “Merci. I’m glad I could help!” He playfully saluted both of his colleagues. “I better head to the Medical Wing then and see if Gustave needs help with the morning routine.” He added afterwards. As he left, he waved to Harry and Mira. “See you later.”

Elena smiled and waved back. “Tell Gustave that we need to see him whenever he’s available.”

Alex nodded and replied, “I will.” before leaving Harry’s office and closed the door behind him. He immediately made his way towards the Medical Bay, having a rather upbeat pace as he walked. He may not have been able to get his own gadget development underway, but he did manage to help find a way to improve the simulation training. He didn’t think that his idea would have played out as well as the R&D director said it had. He figured it would have led to a dead end at the start. He was glad to see that it hadn’t been the case.

When he arrived at the medical bay, Alexandre looked around to try and find Gustave. At the moment, he didn’t see him out by the beds, so he assumed that he would either be in his office or out and about. If it was the second option, then this would be a bit frustrating.

“Gustave?” Soutien called out and placed one hand on his hip. It took a few seconds, but he did receive a muffled response.

“In my office.”  _ First option.  _ The brunette smiled.  _ Perfect. _ He headed over towards where Doctor Kateb’s office was and opened the door before leaning in the doorway. Doc was currently hunched over his desk, writing on documents with one hand, and the other rubbing his forehead tiredly.

“Bonjour.” Alex greeted happily. He then took a quick look over at the paperwork he was doing. “J’ai pensé tu as dit que nous faisons les papiers après nos décalages.” (I thought you said that we do paperwork after our shifts.) He stated teasingly, and chuckled in amusement when Gustave glanced up to give him a small glare.

“Vraiment?” (Really?) The older man questioned sarcastically.

Alexandre snickered and innocently smiled. “Vraiment.” (Really.)

Doc huffed, but it didn’t take him long to change his tired frown into a sly smile. “Bien, Si tu veux amuser à propos des papiers, tu peux les faire.” (Fine, If you want to joke about the papers, then you can do them.) He closed the manilla folder with the papers neatly stacked inside before standing up and handing them to Alexandre, who groaned with discontent as he took the folder in his hands.

“Gustave-”

“Ne me  _ Gustave _ pas.” (Don’t  _ Gustave _ me.) He retorted with a faint smile as he went to go and make sure everything was prepped in the medical bay. Alexandre followed him as he continued. “Tu dois apprendre que-” (You have to learn that-) He paused, and both Doc and Soutien turned when someone had walked into the medical center. It was a man. Fairly tall, at around six foot one, brunette hair, darker eyes, and he was branding a CBRN uniform. Gustave didn’t seem very happy to see him, but Alexandre was curious upon seeing the French flag on the other’s shoulder. “Quoi, Olivier?” (What, Olivier?) Doc snipped as he returned to stocking the carts beside the beds.

“Bien, bonjour à toi aussi…” (Well, good morning to you too…) The other greeted sarcastically, rolling his eyes a little. “Es-tu occupé?” (Are you busy?)

“Pourquoi?” (Why?) Gustave questioned.

“Je pense me suis blessé quand j’ai essayé réparer ma drone.” (I think I got hurt when I tried to fix my drone.) Olivier explained, gesturing to his hand.

“Tu me parais bien.” (You look fine to me.) Gustave deadpanned and glared at the other.

Alexandre glanced at Olivier’s hand. He could see some redness, but other than that, he was too far to see anything else. Was his mentor really going to dismiss a potential injury? He turned to Doc and frowned.

“Don’t dismiss it.” Soutien looked back to the other man in the room. “Here, take a seat.” He motioned towards one of the open beds. Olivier looked at him a bit surprised, but did as he was asked. He sat on the bed furthest from Doc, and already, Alexandre could tell that there was something between the CBRN specialist and the GIGN medic.

“You speak French.” It was more of a statement than a question, but Alexandre acknowledged it and nodded.

“Yes. Now show me your hand.” Olivier held out his hand, and now that he had a better look, Soutien cringed a little. He gently rotated his hand and observed all of the scratches, gashes, and bruises. “What happened?” He asked with mild concern. “All of this from a drone?”

“It’s a large drone,” Olivier justified. He decided to try and stir some light hearted conversations. “Are you from France? Or somewhere else?”

Alexandre went to snag a pair of white latex gloves. As he tugged them on, he glanced over to his new acquaintance. “Bordeaux, and you?”

Olivier smiled. “Toulouse.” he looked down at his hand and sighed at the state it was in. However, he brushed the disappointment aside and gazed back at Soutien. “What’s your name?”

“Alexandre Moreau.” The younger medic walked back over to him and grinned in delight. “Nice to meet you, Olivier.” He carefully used both hands to hold Olivier’s injured one. “What were you doing when this happened?”

Lion huffed. “Emmanuelle and I were trying to get the propeller blades in place. I was tightening the last few screws on it when she accidentally turned on the drone. The blades cut my hand.” He recalled, watching how Alex examined his hand. “How bad is it?”

“Not as bad as it could have been.” Alexandre wagered, and scoffed a small laugh. “I wouldn’t be expecting to do any more drone work for a few days.” He let go of Olivier’s hand and pushed his glasses up on his nose. “You have a bunch of gashes, small and large. I’ll have to stitch up a couple, but the rest can heal naturally.”

Olivier sighed in relief, and chuckled a tiny bit. “That’s not so bad.”

Moreau shook his head in dismay. “That doesn’t mean it isn’t bad at all.” He put his hands on his hips and glared at Lion. “You could have seriously damaged your hand. You could have cut open veins, torn tendons or ligaments, you could have destroyed the nerves in your hand!-” He paused and took a deep breath. As much as he wanted to go on a tangent, he wasn’t going to. “Olivier,” He began again, with a much softer tone. “You need to be more careful. You got lucky. This should have been far more severe than it was.”

Lion nodded calmly and his cheeky attitude disappeared. “Right. Sorry.” He offered a slightly apologetic look towards Alexandre. “I’ll be more careful.”

“Good.” Alex’s smile returned and fetched his suture kit. “Now let’s get your hand all patched up.”

Off in the distance, Soutien noticed that Doc had been observing, and being rather quiet and docile compared to how he usually acts in the medical facility. Even when they were in university, he never acted like this, unless he was extremely tired. Regardless, this was unusual behavior, and it was beginning to concern Alexandre.

After he had sewn up the deeper gashes on Olivier’s hand, Alex bandaged up the rest of the cuts and sent him off to go and get some rest. Unfortunately, the patients just kept coming after that. Jordan had come in with a few burns from testing some chemical compounds for his explosives, one of the Russians, Maxim, had come in with a cut on his hand because of a knife trick gone wrong, and so on. He got to meet a lot more of Rainbow, and from the looks of it, Doc’s usual attitude had returned. He had cared for a few other operatives while Alex had been busy with his bunch. It was a long, but busy day, though it was one that Alexandre happily accepted.

As he was packing away the medical supplies left over from the day, Gustave walked over to him and sat at one of the stools beside the beds.

“You seem to be catching on fast.” His mentor pointed out with a faint smile. “I’m impressed.”

Alex smiled in return. “Thanks.” He hummed in thought while he reached up to put some medications back in the cabinet. “You know, today wasn’t all that bad for my real first day. I made a few friends, got used to the layout of the med bay, and there wasn’t anything too severe.”

Gustave chuckled. “Don’t get used to it.” He warned jokingly. “This place gets much busier, and the injuries can get very bad. You’ll have to be prepared for anything.”

“I know, I know.” Soutien glanced at his co-worker. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a good day.” He mused as he closed the cabinet, then turned to face Doc directly. They both shared a cheerful smile. After, Alex hesitantly spoke again. “Gustave, can I ask you about something?”

The older medic noticed his unease and his smile faded a bit as he grew concerned. “Of course. What is it?”

Moreau rubbed the back of his neck and tried to find the right words. “Earlier… when Olivier first came into the Medical wing. You two looked mad at each other. Is there something going on between you two?”

Gustave sighed and put his hands in his lap. “It’s complicated, Alexandre.” He looked down for a moment before looking back up at his apprentice. “Olivier and I have a very rough history. It would be hard to explain.”

“Ah.” Alex frowned. “I see.” He thought for a minute, tapping his foot and looking down towards the ground.  _ This is going to cause problems… Gustave didn’t even want to fully evaluate him earlier… what if it had been an actual emergency? _ The idea concerned Soutien far more than anything he had dealt with today.

“Will it affect your ability to care for him?”

Doc raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“This history you have with Olivier.” Alexandre reiterated. “Will it keep you from giving him an unbiased medical evaluation, or advice?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Because if that’s the case, I will treat him from now on.”

Gustave scowled at him. “Are you saying that I’m unable to give an unbiased treatment?”

“No.” Soutien corrected. “Just for  _ him _ .”


	4. Cool Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doc and Soutien get into a heated argument. Tensions are rising, and Gustave isn't sure he recognizes the man he knew so long ago.

“You can’t be serious.” Gustave’s voice sounded incredibly offended at the accusation that had been thrown at him. “Alexandre, I may have my issues with Olivier, but I can handle giving him proper medical attention.”

“Clearly not.” Alexandre argued. “You almost sent him away with deep gashes that could have been infected if they weren’t treated. He could have developed irreparable damage to his hand.” He wasn’t planning to back down from this argument. As much as he hated confrontation, he was going to face this, especially if someone’s health is being put at risk. “Gustave, you can’t really believe that you did the right thing by almost turning him away this morning.”

The older GIGN medic scowled at his prodigy, and didn’t answer right away. He knew that he hadn’t done the right thing. He knew, deep down, that he shouldn’t have turned Olivier away, but the fact that he was actually being called out for it was what was throwing him off the rails. Harry had given him warnings about it in the past, sure. However, he had never been blatantly accused in his Medical Wing.

“Alexandre,” Doc’s voice was holding a cautious, but definitely irritated tone. “You’ve only been here for one day. You have no right to be lecturing me on medical care-”

“I do have a right!” Alex cut him off instantly, and raised his volume. “I have a right to call you out, especially if you’re putting someone else’s health on the line.” His hands balled up into fists at his side. “I may have been your apprentice back then, but I’m your equal now. We work  _ together _ , alright?” The brunette huffed an angry breath. “I will not tolerate a patient being turned away because of personal history.”

Gustave’s expression changed to one of slight shock at his outburst. He hadn’t ever seen him get this upset, even back when he would get extremely stressed in University. There was some fussing over work and maybe a small rant, but never like this. This was a new scenario, and now he felt like he was seeing a new side to his old colleague. “Alex-”

“I’m not done.” Soutien scowled back at him. “If you and Olivier have a complicated past, that’s fine. I don’t need to know what happened, and quite honestly, it’s not my business. All I care about right now is that you’re straight with me. Either you learn to set your differences aside with him and treat him like anyone else when he walks through those doors,” He pointed in the direction of the Medical Center entrance. “Or I’ll be handling his cases from now on.” He glared at Gustave. “Am I being clear?”

Doc glared daggers at Alexandre and stood up. “We’ll talk more about this tomorrow, when you’ve cooled off.” He walked past him to head towards his office. “You’re not acting like yourself.” Gustave stopped at the doorway into his office and turned to face Alex. 

“No, you’re not acting like yourself!” Alexandre snapped and his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “The Gustave I remember would have helped anybody, no matter who they were. You wouldn’t ever shut someone out and refuse to help them!” His arms shook a little as he tried to keep himself composed. “Why are you so determined to keep him out of your med bay?”

The sight of Soutien and his growing frustration and confusion brought up a memory from way back. When they were students at the University of Paris. They had been studying and working on an assignment. Alexandre, no matter how much they went over the material, couldn’t understand it, and he felt like he was the biggest failure in his class. Doc kept pushing and insisting he did know. He knew that Alex had the answers, knew it all by heart, he was just too frustrated to see it.

_ “Alexandre,” Gustave smiled faintly and leaned over the study desk to try and catch a glimpse of his colleague’s face, which was buried in the comfort of his arms. “I know that you know this. Don’t give up just yet.” _

_ “No I don’t!” The brunette’s head lifted and his cheeks burned as tears pricked the corners of his eyes. His hands clutched one another and he snapped at him. “Stop putting so much faith in me.” _

_ “No.” His mentor sternly replied and gazed at him seriously. “You wanted to do this, right?” When Alexandre nodded faintly and sniffled, Gustave continued. “It won’t be easy, but you need to fight hard and show everyone you can do it. You can’t give up when it gets tough, Alex.” He assured him afterward, “You’re not doing this alone.” _

Gustave took a deep breath. His gaze towards Alexandre shifted from anger and disapproval to timid sadness. He had seen this side of him before, he saw that now, but it was for a completely different reason. This time, it wasn’t an outburst of him being angry with himself, it was because he was trying to protect a friend- an acquaintance, more so. Still, that didn't make it any less kind.

“Alex.” His softer tone of voice struck Soutien off his axis and his attitude began to fizzle down. “We can talk more about this tomorrow.” He tried his best to give a sincere smile, but it held more malice than he would have liked. “You do have a right to bring up concerns, but this isn’t the way to go about it.” He patted the doorframe for his office. “We’ll talk in here tomorrow morning. I’ll take care of the paperwork this afternoon.”

Alexandre let out a deep breath and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll handle it.” He frowned. “Six wanted to see you when you had time.”

Gustave sighed tiredly. “Did he say what for?”

He shook his head in return. “Non. Just that he wanted to talk. I think Mira will be there too.”

Doc pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned against the doorframe. “Parfait… R&D travaille.” (Perfect… R&D work.) He muttered in their native tongue. “Bien. Tu peux occuper les papiers.” (Fine. You can take care of the papers.) He told Alexandre and straightened his posture. “I’ll be back.” He added. As Alexandre passed him to go back to his own office, he lightly nudged him to try and lighten the mood. “Don’t burn the place down while I’m gone.”

Soutien gave a light chuckle and rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” He nudged him back and kept going towards his office. “Bonne chance.” (Good Luck) The brunette mused over his shoulder.

Gustave smiled to himself and stopped at the doors to the Medical Wing. “Merci, Alex.” (Thank you, Alex.) And with that, he left, and Alexandre was alone. In his small office inside the medical facility.

He knelt down beside the filing cabinet beside his desk and exhaled a faint breath as he started to pluck out the files of the operatives that had come in today.  _ Thermite, Kapkan, Jackal, Maverick, Caveira, Amaru...  _ Alexandre paused when his hand hovered over the rest of the folders, and his expression changed to being disgruntled as he tried to remember the last one. He knew their name, but he didn’t remember asking about their codename.  _ Wonderful… now I have to filter through all of them to find it. _

Soutien set the stack of other folders he had collected onto his desk and began to pull the others out one by one, searching for the first and last name of the operative.  _ Olivier Flament… _ There weren’t any operatives with a French codename, except for Gilles, but given that fact, he knew that Montagne couldn’t be Olivier. Maybe he should organize the folders by CTU next time instead of by codename alphabetical order.

“Come on… where are you?” He questioned aloud. He had breezed through A-G, now he was getting to the K and L category. He already had Kapkan’s folder, but now there were the last folders in that grouping:  _ Kaid, Lesion, and Lion. _ Alexandre picked Kaid’s, skimming through the first page and almost immediately put it back. Not him. Lesion’s was the same. When he picked up Lion’s however, he noticed a much heavier weight to it than the majority of the other files. Upon glancing at the first page of the file, Alexandre hummed in content, with a hint of curiosity.

“Found you.”

He set the folder on top of the stack and stood up. The brunette closed the cabinet with his foot and waltzed over to his desk chair before plopping down into it. He huffed in frustration when his lab coat caught underneath him, and quickly adjusted it so that he could sit comfortably. Without anymore tasks to delay him, Alexandre grabbed the stack of folders, pulled it towards him, reached for a pen, and clicked it to get ready to write..

He had to put incident reports from the day into the operator's files if they had come in. That was all he had to do, which wasn’t hard. It was just a little annoying when there were so many people that came in throughout today. It had to be done, though. So, he would get it done as quick, and efficiently as he could. After he pulled out seven incident report sheets, Alex began to fill out each one with the best description he could.

_ Jordan “Thermite” Trace: came in with minor burns along his scar tissue. Another Exothermic Charge experiment went wrong, by his description. He was prescribed a healing solvent and a skin sensitive bandaging. Will need a follow up in two days. -Doc _

_ Maxim “Kapkan” Basuda: had a large gash in the palm of his hand, roughly two inches in length. Caused by a serrated steel blade, but no foreseeable permanent damage. Treated with cleansing and bandaging. Will need a follow up in three days. -Doc _

_ Ryad “Jackal” Ramirez Al-Hassar: scheduled appointment regarding his insomnia treatment. No further updates on his behavior, but he was advised to continue taking the sleeping medication as prescribed. Follow up scheduled to be one week from his visit. -Doc _

_ Erik “Maverick” Thorn: Came in with complaints of a headache and dizziness after a sparring match. After a close examination and observation over the course of a couple of hours, he was not at risk of a concussion. Advised to take the afternoon off and get some rest. No follow up necessary. -Soutien _

_ Taina “Caveira” Pereira: Came in after a training scenario with wooden splinters stuck in her lower bicep. Cause was determined to be shrapnel from a fake impact grenade. The splinters were removed, her wounds were cleaned out, and she was bandaged up before being dismissed. No follow up required, but recommended. -Soutien _

_ Azucena “Amaru” Quispe: Received a large scrape on her calves after being thrown by her gadget- a grappling hook. She was treated by cleansing the scrapes and putting bandages on them. She is not to use her gadget in training situations until this glitch is fixed. No follow up required. -Soutien _

When it came down to Olivier’s incident report, Alexandre paused and hovered his hand over the blank page. He couldn’t help but think back on everything that happened today, from when he saw Doc and Lion’s first interaction, to when he had yelled at Gustave about not properly caring for him today. The mixed feelings of understanding, compassion, and concern were making him feel sick to his stomach, so he tossed his pen aside and turned away from the paperwork.

_ Why did I snap at him like that? _ Alex shook his head in dismay and combed his fingers through his messy locks of hair.  _ Gustave didn’t deserve that… he was being calm and I just… lashed out. _ He inhaled deeply and let the breath out slowly.  _ Why did I get so protective over Olivier? Why didn’t I stop myself? Usually I’m so good about that. _ He debated with himself as his foot tapped nervously against the ground. He was hoping Doc wouldn’t be angry with him after he apologized later. He didn’t seem that upset when he left, but he definitely was disappointed, that much was certain.

_ Knock. Knock. _

Alexandre glanced up and turned to look towards the entrance to his office. To his surprise, it wasn’t Doc, but instead it was Bandit. He was casually leaning against the doorway with a friendly grin.

“Oh.” His eyes widened and he smiled sincerely. “Hey, Dom. What’s up?”

Dominic chuckled a bit and tapped his watch. “We were supposed to talk after your shift, remember?” Alexandre paused for a moment. Then he winced before sighing at his own forgetfulness.

“Dammit… Sorry, Dominic.” Soutien laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. “Gustave wanted me to take care of the paperwork since he needed to go talk to Six.” The German man waved a hand dismissively and shrugged.

“It’s fine. I’m just giving you shit because I can.” He joked. “So, you have time to talk about your gadget while you finish that up?”

Alexandre nodded happily. “Of course.” He gestured to the chair off to the side. “Grab a seat. This shouldn’t take too long.” The medic pushed himself back to sitting at his desk and went back to writing the incident report for Olivier. He heard Bandit move over to the other end of the room where the chair was and dragged it over to Alex’s desk. He turned it around so he was sitting with his chest against the back of the chair, and his arms resting on top of it.

“Alright. I’m all ears.” Dominic hummed as he watched Soutien work.

“Well,” The RAID officer scribbled the final notes into the incident report. “I’m trying to develop tactical gloves that work as a battery operated AED.” He began, but it seemed the engineer was already quick to question him.

“What’s an AED?”

Alex glanced up to meet his gaze for a second. “Automated external defibrillator.” He chuckled faintly. “You know, the things that shock your heart to get it pumping again?”

“Right.” Bandit smirked. “Clever idea, I’ll give you that.” He shifted in the seat a tiny bit to get more comfortable. “But it’s gonna be very complicated to make. Do you have a basic idea of what design you’re looking for? Guessing by what you were talking about, these wouldn’t be the size of normal tactical gloves.”

Soutien nodded and glanced around his workspace before pulling the dufflebag out from under the desk. “I have some blueprints that you can look at.” He pulled out a neat paper roll and handed it to Dominic, who carefully unrolled it to take a look. “Basically, I want to try and make the conductive metal on the outside, have pressure sensors beneath that layer, and put a protective layer of gel and fabric to keep the user safe from electrocution.”

Bandit hummed and played with the end of his beard while he thought about the whole premise. Observing the blueprints, they weren’t bad at all. Very detailed. However, there were a few flaws he could point out just by looking at it.

“I like the idea. It’s possible, but not with how you drafted it right now.” When he received a confused look from Alexandre, the German sighed. “You have these open wires, unprotected and they could be compromised from just about anything.” He explained curtly as he circled his finger around the wires on the blueprint. “You need to find a way to protect the wires that connect the gloves to the battery.”

Moreau pursed his lips and tapped his pen against the wooden surface of the desk. “What about paracord? It’s not easily broken, and it’s great for enclosing exposed wires.”

Dominic glanced over the blueprints. “Paracord could work… but we should test it before we put it in the plans.” He nodded in approval. “But that’s not a bad idea. These blueprints are pretty solid other than a few little things here and there.” He raised an eyebrow at Soutien. “How did you come up with this?”

Alex leaned back in his chair, crossed one leg over the other, and adjusted his glasses. He took a few seconds to try and pull the memory back up of what had caused him to develop this. There were a lot of reasons, but there was one moment in particular that surfaced it. When it came to him, the medic frowned a little.

“Long story short, there was an incident when my unit and I had to respond to a riot. There were a lot of casualties. I was running around the scene trying to help break up the riot with my team.” He sighed softly. “One of the people in the riot had a heart attack and collapsed on the ground. At the time, I didn’t have a defibrillator ‘cause I couldn’t carry it with me through the crowds, and it was too big to squeeze by the tight spaces.” Alex shook his head in dismay. “I had to perform CPR until the crowd dispersed enough and I could get a defib to us. They almost didn’t make it.”

Bandit looked at the blueprints. “So, you wanted a way to always carry one with you.” His lips quirked into a faint smirk. “It’s ambitious, that’s for damn sure.” When he met Alexandre’s gaze, he added, “But it’s just crazy enough to work.”

Soutien grinned. “I can’t wait to get started.”

Dominic opened his mouth to speak, but he stopped when a different voice echoed into the room.

“Alexandre,” The medic looked over to the doorway, and Bandit turned around in his chair to see Gilles standing in the entrance. The shield bearer smiled kindly. “Am I interrupting?”

Alex shook his head. “Not at all. What’s up?”

“I wanted to see if Six found you a place to stay.” Montagne replied. The RAID officer shook his head once more. “You’re more than welcome to stay with Julien and I until he does.” He chuckled under his breath. “I think Julien likes having another roommate.”

Alexandre snickered and brushed his loose brunette locks out of his face. “We haven’t even hung out. He fell asleep right after we got to the apartment. How could he like me as a roommate already?”

Gilles shrugged his shoulders and sighed. “I don’t know.” He smiled a bit. “But he really wanted you to stay.”

Soutien laughed in delight. “I guess I’m staying.” He started to gather up the operator files on his desk and stack them in his arms. “When are you guys leaving? I need to put these away and finish talking with Dominic.”

Bandit shrugged nonchalantly. “We can talk more later. I was gonna head out anyway.” He glanced down at his phone as he pulled it out. “Marius is asking why I’m taking so long. I’m supposed to be giving him a ride home.”

Alexandre went to put the files back before closing the cabinet and handed his phone to Dominic. “That’s fine. Here, just put your number in here and I’ll text you later.”

“Sounds good to me.” The German quickly typed his contact info into the device and tossed it back to Soutien. “There.”

The medic smiled cheerfully. “Thanks.” He tucked the phone into his pocket.

“Ready?” Gilles asked and watched Alex do one more check around the office.

“Yeah, just making sure everything is put back where it should be…” The brunette snagged the keys to the medical center from his desk, locked up the filing cabinets, powered off his computer, and hung up his lab coat. “Isn’t Julien still training recruits?” Alexandre asked over his shoulder, glancing back to Monty standing in the doorframe.

The shield bearer shook his head. “No. Today he was doing training simulations.”

“Oh! I forgot.” Soutien chuckled to himself. “He even told me yesterday that he would be in the simulations.” He escorted Dominic and Gilles out of his office and locked the door behind them on the way out. After that, he powered off all the lights in the Medical Wing as they headed out of the actual facility itself. Alex double checked the doors and locked them before tucking the keys into his back pocket.

“I’ll see you around.” Bandit waved to both of the French men and walked away towards the parking garage. Alex waved back, then turned to face Gilles.

“Back to the apartment?”

Montagne nodded and smiled.

As they proceeded down the corridors of the base, Monty glanced over to the medic walking beside him. “Have you made any new friends?” He asked with an amused smile, and just before Soutien was about to reply, he added, “Other than the GIGN.”

Alexandre huffed, giving Gilles a playful glare and rolled his eyes. He put his hands in his jean pockets. “Well… I met Jordan and Eliza, but we haven’t really talked all that much since yesterday. Other than them, it’s just been work related talk.” He sighed in disappointment. “I haven’t had time to just sit down and have meaningful conversations.”

Montagne hummed softly at what he said. “It’s only been two days. You’ll have more time to socialize soon.”

Soutien frowned. “I hope so.” He removed his glasses off of his face so that he could clean the lenses with his shirt. “I don’t want to be cooped up in the Med Wing all the time. I need to get out and do something else from time to time.”

“Aren’t you going to be doing R&D work?” Gilles questioned and rolled one of his shoulders to loosen the tension in it.

Alex exhaled. “No. My project got put off to the side while Six and Mira finish one of their top secret projects.” Once he deemed the lenses clean, he put the frames back on his nose. “For now I’m full-time medical staff until the project is done.”

“That’s interesting.” Gilles admitted. “Everyone else is still getting R&D development or gadget analysis, even with this project in development.”

“And that’s why I’m still confused about all this.” Alexandre replied. “It doesn’t make sense to me why I have to wait a few months for my project, but everyone else still gets help with theirs.” He turned his head to look at Monty. “If this project is so important, shouldn’t they focus all their attention on that and not just put mine aside?”

Montagne shrugged his shoulders. “You would think so.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to think of possible reasons on why this is what Harry decided to do. “The only thing I can think of is that maybe since your gadget isn’t even in the prototype stage yet, maybe Six wants to wait until this project is fully complete before they focus on making your gadget?”

Alex fell silent, taking in what Gilles suggested. It was a pretty fair idea. It would make sense, given the fact everyone else has post-prototype gadgets already. “Maybe…”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it right now.” Gilles noted, “You still have a lot to learn about this place.” He mused with a gentle smile.

Alexandre returned the gesture and looked straight ahead. “So I’ve noticed.”

“Hey, Alex!”

Soutien turned around when he heard a familiar southern voice call out to him. His smile widened when he saw Jordan catching up with them.

“Hey, Jordan.” Alex greeted cheerfully, though he remembered seeing him come into the medical facility to get care from Doc, and he offered a slight look of concern. “How are you feeling? I saw that you got your hands burned earlier.”

Thermite chuckled and waved it off dismissively. “I’ll be fine. Happens all the time. Nothing Doc can’t fix.” He pointed out the clean bandages around his hands and wrists. “I’ll be back to work in no time.”

The medic hummed a tiny laugh. “If you say so. I would still come back and get the all clear before you go back to chemical work, though.” He tilted his head a bit. “You can never be too careful.”

Jordan snickered. “Kid, I’m a pyromaniac. Doc already knows I don’t come back for a check up. I just go right back to it.”

Alexandre rolled his eyes and smirked. “Don’t come crying to me then if you make it worse.” He replied sassily and put his hands on his hips. The Texan glanced up at him.

“Oh really? Isn’t it your job to kiss it and make it better?” He taunted with a teasing grin. The two of them stared each other down for a few seconds, but it was immediately followed up with mutual laughter. When the laughing eventually simmered down, Alex spoke up.

“Whatever, Jordan.” The brunette lightly nudged Thermite.

The FBI agent smiled at their exchange. “Havin’ fun here yet?”

Alexandre shrugged. “That’s one way to put it, I guess.” He continued on, “I was just telling Gilles that my gadget development got put on hold until further notice. So that’s why I was in the medical center today.”

“Huh.” Jordan seemed a little confused by that himself. “Don’t see why they would do that. They haven’t done it with anyone else.” He then added jokingly, “At least they’re still keeping you busy.”

Soutien tittered. “Yeah, that’s true. Never a dull day in the Med Wing.”

“Where you headin’ off to? You done for the day?” Thermite asked curiously.

Alex nodded. “Yeah. Gilles and I were gonna go grab Julien and head back to their apartment.” He explained. “Why?”

“Nothin’.” Jordan smiled happily. “Would you wanna come play cards with me an’ a few others? Gonna be me, ‘Liza, Adriano, Erik, Jack, and Yumiko.”

The brunette raised a brow with interest. “Tonight?”

Jordan nodded in excitement. “Yup.”

Alexandre glanced over to Gilles. “Well, he’s my ride home.”

Thermite scoffed. “Easy, I’ll take ya back home when it’s done.” He kindly offered. “Don’t worry ‘bout a thing.”

“As long as you bring him back in one piece.” Montagne mused and patted Alex’s shoulder. “Fine by me. Just don’t stay too late. Julien and I go to bed early.”

Soutien nodded enthusiastically. “Merci, Gilles.” The shield bearer chuckled softly.

“Pas problème, mon ami.”

With that, Montagne walked off and left Alexandre to hang out with Jordan. The Texan led him back towards the parking garage, and the two went on a wild tangent about their day. Alex gave as many details as he was allowed, given the doctor-patient confidentiality, and Jordan told a few interesting stories about his gadget testing and simulation training. The RAID officer turned completely in shock to face the pyro-obsessed operative when he mentioned that the reason he got burned was because he stayed too close to the explosion.

“What the hell is wrong with you?! That could have been lethal!” He lectured and jabbed a finger at Jordan, who found this absolutely amusing and was laughing his ass off.

“It’s fine, Alex! Don’t worry about it!” He beamed and he gave a smile that could light up a room. “Honestly, I’ve been a lot closer to it than I was today.”

Alex deadpanned quietly. “That doesn’t reassure me.”

Jordan smirked and wrapped an arm around him. “I’m a professional, Alex. I can handle myself.”

The medic scoffed a little and laughed sarcastically. “Yeah, your regular visits to the med bay says otherwise.”

The two continued their playful banter all the way to the parking garage, where Jordan had his vehicle towards the back corner. When they stopped at the vehicle, Alexandre’s eyes widened and he whistled at the dark blue mustang that was waiting for them.

“This is yours?!” Moreau nearly squeaked in disbelief. When Thermite nodded, the brunette admired how well taken care of it appeared. No scratches, dents, dust, or dirt. It looked pretty prestine for an older model. “That’s awesome!”

“If you can name the car, you can get shotgun.” Jordan mused as whipped out the keys and unlocked it.

Alexandre smirked. “Duh, it’s a 2007 Ford Roush. These things are incredible.” He got a surprised expression thrown at him from the Texan and he laughed joyfully. “My dad was a huge fan of cars. Always talked about them and how he wanted to have a collection of American made models. This was one of his favorites!”

“No kiddin’?” Jordan smiled. “Well, you’ve just earned bonus points from me. Hop in!”

Soutien put his dufflebag in the back seat of the Roush, then lifted the passenger seat back up so that he could sit down. Once he was buckled in and closed the door, he took a closer look at the interior. “You really keep it clean. I haven’t seen anyone take this much care for a car.”

“Oh, hell.” Thermite grinned. “I would do anything for this baby.” He patted the dashboard of the Mustang and looked to Alexandre. “This thing is my pride and joy.” He got himself buckled in and continued, “I think I’m gonna have Erik take some pictures of it so I can make it my desktop background on my engineering computer.”

“That’s… Maverick, right?” Alex winced as he tried to remember who that was. He knew he had seen them today, but his memory was failing him.

Jordan nodded. “Yup. He loves photography. Saw him takin’ pictures a few days ago and asked him what that was about. He told me all about how he loves it and that he does a few paid gigs for stuff here and there.” He started up the engine and checked his rear view mirror. “You should ask to see his photos sometime. They’re pretty damn impressive.”

Alexandre smiled. “I’ll be sure to do that. I love seeing stuff like that.”

“Well, you’ll get to see him tonight. Maybe he’ll bring the camera.” The raven haired man pointed out.

Soutien smirked and offered a little snicker.

“What?” Jordan asked accusingly.

“Nothing~” Alexandre replied innocently. “Maybe he’ll take a picture when you lose the game.” He cackled when he received a slap to his bicep and couldn’t stop laughing as Jordan pulled out of the parking garage.

“Don’t get cocky, Alex. I’ll beat your ass.” The other warned teasingly.

Alex looked at him and grinned childishly. “I’d like to see you try.”


	5. A Night Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexandre and a few others take the chance to get to know each other a little more in their off-hours, and Alex gets a call from someone close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for the support on this story <3 I know I haven't updated it in AGES, but I hope that previous readers have returned, and I always welcome new ones too! I love to read your comments!! -R.L.

It didn’t take long for Jordan and Alexandre to arrive at the FBI agent’s apartment complex. It was only a few minutes out from the base, and it seemed to be a pretty great place, based on the outer architecture. However, the outside can always be deceiving. Soutien and Thermite got out of the Mustang and the medic kept his duffle bag in the back seat. After all, he wouldn’t really be needing it, right? It was going to be a fun night of card games and who knows what else in Jordan’s apartment.

That was what Alexandre was really looking forward to. It had been a while since he got to play card games with anyone, let alone getting to have a night off period. He was excited to get to meet some of his fellow coworkers and get to unwind for a few hours.

“So,” Jordan held the lobby door open for the French man to let him through, and once he entered, he followed in afterward. “How many people have you met so far?” The Texan asked curiously, raising a brow at his colleague and led him towards the elevators. The lobby itself was actually fairly cozy, almost like the expensive lofts you could find in France if you looked hard enough.

Alexandre hummed in thought and stepped onto the elevator with Jordan. He leaned back against the bar that was against the wall and watched the other press the button for the third floor. “Well, let’s see… I’ve met you, Eliza, Gustave, Gilles, Julien, Olivier, Taina, Ryad, Mike, Max, Maxim, Azucena, Erik, Dominic, Elena… and Six.” He replied promptly, but then his eyes widened a bit in shock at the fact he was able to remember all of those names, when just a few moments ago, he could hardly connect Erik’s name to his face.

Jordan whistled. “Hot damn, you’ve already gotten to meet a good handful. That’s a great start so far.” He added with a chipper tone to his voice. “I remember coming to Rainbow and it was only the FBI, SAS, GIGN, GSG9, and the good old Russians. Just us and nobody else. Twenty operatives against the terrorists of the world.”

Alexandre glanced over to Thermite. “How long ago was that? Cause now we have what… fifty something operatives, right?”

“Fifty-one, with you here now.” Jordan replied with a happy grin. “Six let it slip that we’re gettin’ two more, so fifty-three pretty soon.” He leaned against the bar with Alexandre and looked back at him. “We started about five years ago. Pretty damn impressive we’ve grown so much in such a short amount of time.”

The medic hummed softly and looked straight ahead towards the elevator doors. “Do you think that’s what this new project might be about? The increasing numbers?” He questioned his colleague, and glanced back over towards the black haired pyro.

“What, like a new base or something?” After Alexandre nodded, Jordan took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders. “Beats me, kid. I wouldn’t put it past Six, since Hereford Base is starting to get on it’s last leg. It would make sense to get an upgraded base of operations. It would take a while though to get everything built, depending on what plans he and Elena are coming up with.”

Alexandre let the conversation drop as the elevator doors opened to present their destination. He allowed Jordan to lead the way, and followed promptly after him. The halls seemed pretty quiet, given the fact it was only around seven o’clock in the evening. Either these apartments were usually this quiet, or the sound proofing in the walls are much better than the average complex.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how much would it cost to rent out an apartment here?” The brunette inquired as he took in the modern styled decoration.

“Uhh… roughly ‘bout six hundred to seven hundred a month? That’s just for a one bedroom though. It would be cheaper to just get a two bedroom and split the rent with a friend. Two bedrooms go for about nine hundred a month grand total.” Thermite stopped at his apartment door and dug his keys out of his pocket. “If you’re lucky, you might be able to score a good deal with the landlord, but you gotta be a real charmer for that.” He joked lightly. “I managed to scrape about twenty bucks off what my rent should have been.”

Alexandre snickered at his playful remark. “Wow. You must be one of the better tenants then. I’ve never been able to get that lucky with an apartment back in France. I would have to pay a lot more than that for a place in a building like this.”

“Welp,” Jordan grinned towards Alex. “New location, different prices. Now’s your chance to grab a good place since you’re gonna be here for a while.”

Alexandre thanked the other when he held the door open for him, and he stepped into the apartment. “As much as I would like to, I don’t have anyone to room with. Gilles and Julien already have their own place, and I don’t really think Gustave wants to be around me right now.”

Jordan turned around on his heel to face Alexandre completely. “Woah, woah, woah. What happened between you and Doc? You two seemed just fine the other day.” He pointed out and crossed his arms over his chest. The brunette groaned and muttered a curse under his breath as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“He and I got into a little bit of an argument over something personal. Long story short, I questioned his ability to care for someone in particular and… well, you can imagine how he probably took that.” Alex explained tiredly.

“Not very well, I’m guessin’.” Moreau nodded faintly. “He’ll come around, Alex, trust me. Doc can hold a grudge, but if he can still treat me with a smile after harassing him in the medical wing once or twice a day, I think he’ll be able to bounce back and be able to sort this out with ya.”

Alexandre sighed. “Yeah, we’ll see.” He watched Jordan waltz off towards the kitchen and heard him open something, followed by the soft clinking of glass against glass.

“You want something to drink?” Jordan called over to him.

The French man smiled a bit. “You got any wine?” He called back as he went to go take a seat at the dining room table.

“What do you take me for? One of the girls? I’m talking about real alcohol!” Thermite sassed, and this got Alexandre to crack up. “Come on, have a bottle of my favorite beer. You won’t regret it.”

Alex could now see Jordan in the kitchen from where he sat, and he chuckled at the Texan leaning over the fridge door to show him the beverage. “Aren’t you supposed to drive me back home tonight?” He asked teasingly.

“It’s just one bottle, Alex. It won’t do shit to me. I won’t drink anymore after that. I promise.” The man grinned at him from where he stood and the medic sighed in defeat.

“Fine. One bottle-” Before Thermite could make a comment, he swiftly added afterward, “But only water after that, you got it? Doctor’s orders.”

Jordan smirked and kept one bottle out of the fridge before closing the door and heading over to sit with Alexandre. “Nice try, kid, but you’re not on call. You can’t pull that bullshit on me.”

Alexandre snorted a laugh. “What? My Master’s degree in medical sciences and my almost fifteen years of combat medicine experience isn’t enough to call the shots?”

Thermite grinned. “Nope. My house, my rules.” He popped the cap off of the glass bottle and offered it to Alex to try the first sip. The medic hummed in slight uncertainty, but he eventually took the bottle and quickly sipped a little from it and handed the drink back to his friend.

Alexandre clicked his tongue at the taste, but he frowned after it went away. “It’s not bad, but it isn’t my thing...” He admitted. “Guess I grew too attached to wine and the occasional colada.” He chuckled softly and smiled when Jordan fetched him a tall glass of water. When he was handed the glass, Alex thanked him as the other sat down.

“What’s with the French and their love of wine?” Jordan asked with a small grin. “You guys are all over the stuff.”

Moreau laughed cheerfully and took a sip of his water before replying, “Beats me, but it’s pretty damn good. I don’t think I’ll ever stop drinking it-” He paused when he felt his phone start to vibrate in his pocket. Curious, the brunette pulled his phone out and checked the caller ID.

“Who’s that?” Jordan asked.

Alexandre hummed in slight surprise. “It’s my brother. Give me a sec.” He swiped right to answer the call and brought the device to his ear. “Salut, Jean-Marc. Ça va?” (Hey, Jean-Marc. How are you doing?) He greeted kindly.

“Allô, Alex! Je vais bien, et toi? Qu’est ce-que tu fait?” (Hey, Alex! I’m doing well, and you? What are you doing?) Jordan could barely hear the voice on the other end, but they sounded pretty similar.

“Eh, Je suis très stressé… J'ai été transféré de la France à l'Angleterre.” (Eh, I’m very stressed… I was transferred from France to England.) Alexandre explained with a faint smile. “Mais, je suis avec un nouveau ami, Jordan. Nous allons jouer à des jeux ce soir!” (But, I’m with a new friend, Jordan. We’re going to play games tonight!)

There was a small chuckle from his brother. “Je vois.” (I see.) He started, “Bien, puis Je rencontre lui?” (Well, can I meet him?) The question surprised Alex, since he was expecting Jean-Marc to dig into him about the sudden transfer, but he smiled brightly and hummed in delight.

“Bien sûr! Une moment…” (Of course! One moment…) Alexandre tapped a few settings on his phone and turned on the video call setting, using the front facing camera so he and his brother were looking at each other. They certainly looked similar, but they had some key differences. While Alex’s hair was a darker brown and curly, his brother’s was a lighter brown and a bit straighter. Same eye color, and their voices matched, but their sense of style was the same. Alexandre grinned when the video worked, and he looked over to Jordan. “My brother wants to say hi to you, if that’s alright.”

Thermite nodded with a wide smirk. “Hell yeah, lemme see him.” Alexandre turned the phone so the other was face to face with his sibling. “Hey!” Jordan waved and found it interesting how big the similarities were between the two of them, given the noticeable age difference.

“What’s up?” Jean-Marc grinned and waved back to Jordan. “So, you’re Alex’s new friend, huh?”

The FBI agent nodded firmly. “Yup! Well, one of ‘em at least. He’s made quite the impression around here.” He chuckled. “Jordan Trace. Nice to meet ya.”

“Nice to meet you too, Jordan! I’m Jean-Marc, but Marc is fine too. I’m his younger brother.” The other replied cheerfully.

Jordan decided to cause a little uproar, just for the sake of wanting to see how the two brothers interacted. “Alex didn’t say anythin’ about a brother.”

Alexandre glared at him and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ve been here two-ish days! You really think I’m gonna spill my whole life story in that amount of time?!”

“Wooow!” Jean-Marc scoffed in fake disappointment. “I can’t believe you didn’t even think of me while you were moving to a new country! How dare you.” The Moreau brothers cracked up and Jordan snickered at their interaction before they were able to get themselves back on track with the conversation.

“So, Marc, what do you do for work?” The Texan wondered.

Marc beamed with pride and responded, “Law enforcement. National Police, to be more specific.” He gestured to where he assumed his brother was off-screen. “You probably know Alex’s branch, right?” Jordan nodded. “Well, I’m technically the same branch but I stay inside of one particular district, which right now is Paris. Alex here gets a lot more freedom of where he can do his work.”

Alexandre smirked. “Well, you have that option, too. You just have to keep working for it and then request a transfer to RAID.”

Marc sighed softly. “I know, but I like it here in Paris. Besides, you know how much it would kill mom if she found out that both of us wanted to work internationally?” He chuckled quietly. “I’m not gonna go into that mess right now.”

The medic nodded and moved to be in view with Thermite. “I still have to tell her about my transfer so she knows how I’m doing. I was gonna do that when I got home tonight.” He smiled at Jean-Marc. “How’s she doing anyway?”

“Good. We had a little flu scare with her two weeks ago, but she’s recovering just fine. She definitely misses having both of us home.”

Alexandre’s smile faded a little. “I bet… I haven’t seen her in a while. Maybe I’ll take a flight back home for the holidays so I can visit you both.”

Jean-Marc’s smile widened. “You’re always welcome. Might as well bring some of your new friends, too. Mom’s gonna want to meet them.” He looked to Thermite. “Hey, he’s not causing any trouble yet is he?”

Jordan cackled. “Not yet, but it’s only been two days-” He looked off towards the front door when he heard a couple of knocks. He glanced back at the phone “Hold on just a sec.” He stood up and called over to the door, “It’s unlocked!”

Jean-Marc laughed a little. “More friends?”

Alex shrugged and smiled sheepishly. “Yeah.”

“Well, I’ll let you two get going then. I have to finish up some paperwork here at the precinct. Let me know how game night goes!” His brother replied. “Have fun!”

Alexandre nodded. “You too.”

The medic hung up the call as the front door of the apartment opened to reveal the rest of the operatives that they had been waiting for. Jordan got up to go and greet them, and Alexandre followed suit once he set his phone down on the counter.

“Alright, get ready to lose tragically!” Erik announced as he stepped in first, holding a few decks of cards in his hands and gave the Texan a wide grin. Eliza came in behind him and nudged him aside with a faint smirk.

“In your dreams, Thorn. This game is mine.”

Jordan chuckled, gave Eliza a hug, and then clapped Maverick on the shoulder.

“We’ll just have to see now, won’t we?” Jordan gestured toward Alex as everyone else walked into the living room. “Alright guys, we’ve got a new player tonight, so let’s show ‘em a good time.”

One of the guests, a bald man with sunglasses and dog tags around his neck smiled at Alexandre. “Hey, you’re our new medic, right?” Moreau nodded cheerfully and waved. “Jack Estrada. Nice to finally meet you.” He held out his hand, to which the medic shook. “This is Yumiko.” Jack gestured to the smaller, asian woman that was beside him after he removed his sunglasses and attached them to his shirt.

Yumiko shook Alexandre’s hand as well and grinned.

“It’s nice to meet you both,” Moreau turned to the last guest he had yet to meet. A tall, slightly darker skinned man that wore a dark green t-shirt, and he had scruffy black facial hair to match his equally messy locks of hair on top of his head. “And you are?”

“Adriano.” The man’s Italian accent was very thick, but the tone of his voice made his introduction quite welcoming. “You’ve got a lot of work cut out for you, huh?” Adriano asked jokingly, which got everyone to chuckle in response.

“You have no idea.” Alexandre smirked and rested his hands on his hips.

“Alright, enough chit chat.” Eliza announced before having Erik go set up the decks of cards at the table. “The sooner I kick Jordan’s ass, the better.”

* * *

_ Three hours later… _

“No fucking way!” Jordan huffed as he threw his cards onto the table. “You cheated.” He accused the Italian man sitting across from him at the table, meanwhile everyone else was cracking up. Adriano simply chuckled smoothly and shrugged.

“Call it what you want, but I won.” He mused. “And how could I possibly cheat? I’ve been across from you this whole time.”

Alexandre snickered after he took a sip of some water. “He’s got you there, Jordan. Maybe you’re just bad.”

Jack cackled beside Alexandre and Eliza was struggling not to lose her cool composure, eventually failing to give in to a few giggles. Jordan playfully got up and pulled the medic out of his chair to rough house. He was a little surprised when the French man easily began to ‘fight’ back and managed to put the FBI agent into a not-so-tight choke hold, teasingly ruffling the man’s hair.

“Don’t start with me, Jordan! I got a brother, remember?” Alexandre smirked and started to uncontrollably snicker when the other broke free of his grasp to lightly nudge him off.

“I’ll get you when you least expect it, Alex. Just remember that.”

Moreau pushed his glasses up on his face before plopping back down into his seat. Both he and Jordan reintegrated themselves back into the conversations the others had started up during their little tussle.

“So, where do you all come from?” Alexandre asked curiously, grabbing his cup to finish off the last of his water.

“Well, I’m sure Jordan already told you that he’s from the U.S.” Jack assumed, and rightfully so. “I’m from North Carolina. Yumi here is from Japan.” The smaller asian woman nodded and gave a bright smile as Jack wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“I’m from Boston.” Erik added in, shrugging his shoulders. “Not much to say other than that.”

“I’m from Israel.” Ash replied curtly.

“I’m Italian to my very bones!” Adriano declared as he leaned back into his seat. “I grew up right in the heart of it.”

Alexandre’s eyes widened with curiosity. “Wow. So many different places just in one group of people.” He chuckled happily as he tried to mentally pin where each operator he met had been from so far. “I never thought I would even get to meet someone from most of the countries I had heard of here so far.”

“One of the beauties of the job.” Maverick grinned. “You get to travel and see lots of new places. The middle east was definitely one of my favorites.”

“Afghanistan?” Alexandre wondered. When the blonde man nodded he had to ask a follow up question. “What years were you stationed there? We might have been close in deployments.”

“I doubt we had been. I was all over the place during those years…” Erik quickly shifted the topic of conversation. “How many years you got under your belt, Alex? Seems like you’ve had your fair share of duty stations.”

Alexandre shrugged. “Probably nowhere near as much as any of you. I’ve only been doing this for about fifteen years, maybe more if you count my training throughout my university days.”

“That’s still more than the typical soldier.” Adriano noted. “But if you really want to see someone that’s loyal to their country, go talk to Mike.”

“Thatcher?” Alexandre raised a brow and hummed with faint curiosity. “Why do you say that?”

“‘Cause the man was here when Rainbow first started.” Jordan answered firmly. “Hell, he’s been serving since long before that, probably before you were even born. The man has the military life ingrained into him.” The Texan kicked his feet up onto the table and took a big swig of his water. Everyone at the table nodded in agreement. Alexandre turned his wrist to look at his watch and he sighed with disappointment.

Yumiko giggled. “Time to go home?”

Alexandre smiled sheepishly. “Yeah… a medic’s work is never done. I got to wake up early and take care of some paperwork before my shift.”

Jack got up and went to grab his jacket. “Hey Alex, you think you’d be up for a sparring tournament with us in the next few days?”

The french medic grinned. “I’ll let you know later. I want to get myself settled in first before I start getting involved in everything.” He got up and nodded to Jordan. “You ready to head out?” The raven haired man groaned and glanced over to him, but before he could complain, Alexandre already had a response. “And don’t even try to get someone else to do it. You said you’d drive.”

Jordan huffed. “Fine, fine…” He grabbed the keys to the mustang from off the table and twirled them on his index finger. “Let’s get a move on.”

As everyone exited the apartment building, Alexandre said goodbye to each operator and gave a few a friendly hug or a handshake when they were offered to him. Then he and Jordan took off to take him back to his shared apartment with Gilles and Julien. Alex was barely awake, and quickly losing his ability to think with how exhausted he felt, but one thing he couldn’t help thinking was that he was probably going to have to find a new place to stay. He didn’t want to bother his other french teammates. It wasn’t until a hand waved in front of his eyes that Alex shook his head and glanced over to Jordan, who was smiling like an idiot.

“W-What?”

“You good there, kid? You were spacin’ off pretty good.” Jordan mused. Alexandre sighed and moved his glasses so he could rub one eye.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired… I have a lot to take care of over the next few days.”

The Texan hummed curiously. “You need any help with that? My schedule’s pretty flexible this week.”

Alexandre rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged his shoulders. “Most of it is just figuring out where I’m going to settle in… I feel like I’m being a bother to Gilles and Julien right now, and the apartment is cramped with three people.”

Jordan grinned. “Is that all? Just come live at my place. It’s just me right now, and there’s an extra bedroom. We can just split the rent and there won’t be any problems.”

Alex blinked in slight shock. “Are you sure you’re fine with that? I don’t want you to feel like you have to just because I’m new-”

“Nonsense. I could use the company. The place gets too quiet sometimes. It’d be nice to have someone to shoot the shit with from time to time.” Jordan interjected, though his use of slang heavily confused the medic and all he got in return was a blank stare. “It means I want someone to talk to.” He explained briefly.

Alexandre chuckled softly and ran a hand through his hair. “Alright… then I guess it’s settled. I’ll let Six know tonight that he won’t have to worry about finding me a place to stay.”

“Cool.” Thermite pulled up to the apartment complex that he was directed to and helped Alex get his duffle bag out of the back, “Night, Alex!” He waved goodbye and waited for him to get into the building. Once he knew Alex had gotten inside, he got back into the car and headed home.

Alexandre leaned up against the wall of the elevator and he sighed with relief that he would be able to lie in bed and get some sleep after such a long day. However, he felt his phone vibrate and he turned the screen on to see a notification.

_ New Message from Elliot _

He swiped the screen to open the message and he felt his heart ache at what he read.

_ “Hey, Alex! We miss you a lot back home… The boss said you got a kickass promotion! I hope you aren’t having too much fun without us. It’d be cool to get to talk to you soon.” _

Alexandre sank down until he was leaning up against the safety bar of the elevator and he felt his walls begin to crumble down as he tried his best to type up a reply.

_ “I miss you guys too… maybe we can video call later when I’m off duty?” _

The response he got lifted the medic’s spirit back to it’s former, joyful state.

_ “Hell yeah. I’ll see if the boss can join us too. I bet he’d love to see you too.” _


	6. Home Sickness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexandre returns home to find Rook still awake. He decides to sit down and open up a little about how he's feeling after the transfer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got rid of the author's note so there isn't any clutter in the reading <3

[10:00 PM]

Alexandre pulled out a spare key to the apartment once he got to the door and unlocked it before walking inside and setting his stuff down by the front entrance. He closed the front door, sat down, and worked to untie and pull off his combat boots. He had managed to get one boot off, but he got rather frustrated with the other one that seemed so hell bent on hugging his foot.

“ _Baise moi…_ ” (Fuck me…) The French man muttered softly to himself and gave one last tug on the boot before it finally came off to land on the hardwood floor. Alex leaned back against the door and exhaled tiredly. When he glanced towards the living room, he was a little confused to see that there was a soft light coming from there. Shouldn’t everyone be asleep by now?

He pushed himself up, relocked the front door, and quietly walked into the living room. When he got there, he was surprised to see that Rook was still awake, watching a French comedy on the TV. “ _Julien, c’est très tard_.” (It’s very late.) Alexandre spoke to him, making sure to keep his voice down in the event that Montagne could be sleeping. The younger operative looked over to him and smiled.

“ _Je sais, mais je ne peux pas dormir._ ” (I know, but I couldn’t sleep.) Julien replied calmly and patted the spot on the sofa next to him, inviting Soutien to join him. Since he himself didn’t feel like heading to bed quite yet, Alexandre took the offer and took the seat.

Julien’s response did have the medic concerned, though. “ _Tu peut pas dormir? Pourquoi?_ ” (You couldn’t sleep? Why?)

The other shrugged and ran a hand through his thick blond hair. “ _Je sais pas._ ” (I don’t know) He hummed a little and leaned back to allow himself to be cushioned by the soft couch. After a brief moment of silence, he spoke up once again. “ _J’ai pensé tu voudrais rester avec Jordan ce soir._ ” (I thought you would stay at Jordan’s tonight.) He admitted casually. “ _Ce n'était pas amusant?_ ” (Was it not fun?)

Alexandre exhaled deeply and crossed his arms over his chest. “ _C’etait amusant…_ ” (It was fun…)

“ _Mais…_?” (But…?) Rook asked curiously.

Soutien frowned and pushed his glasses up on his nose. “ _Mais… ça m'a rappelé de m'équipe en France._ ” (But… it reminded me of my team in France.) He eventually muttered out. “ _RAID… c’etait ma famille._ ” (RAID… it was my family.)

Julien noticed how tired and defeated his new teammate looked, and it was something he could relate to. It was exactly how he felt back when he had first transferred into Rainbow. “ _Ce… que Je sais. J’ai ce senti il y a longtemps._ ” (That… that I know. I felt that a long time ago.) He leaned forward and rested his arms on his knees, his hands rubbing each other nervously. He usually wasn’t one to open up so quickly, but seeing as how this was one of his people, one of his brothers of sorts, he was willing to. “ _Quand j’ai rejoint Rainbow, J’ai ce senti, aussi._ ” (When I joined Rainbow, I felt that, too.)

“ _Comment avez-vous surmonté cela_?” (How did you get over it?) Alexandre wondered quietly, glancing over towards the GIGN operative. Rook only shook his head.

“ _Je n’ai pas._ ” (I haven’t.) He clarified, “ _C’est difficile, mais tu apprends à lâcher prise._ ” (It’s hard, but you learn to let it go.) Julien sat up and turned to face Alexandre. “ _Je retourne à France chaque année. Je sais que Je peux visite mes amies ou ma famille puis._ ” (I go back to France every year. I know that I can see my friends or my family then.) He explained with a faint smile. “ _Peut être, tu peux rejoint moi._ ” (Maybe, you can join me.)

Alexandre finally smiled a little. “ _Peut être._ ” (Maybe.) He felt his chest begin to ache as he looked at Rook. The sweet smile and the kind gaze from his light blue eyes made the older brunette have to hold back the tears that were trying to well up in his eyes. “ _Tu es tres gentil, Julien_ …” (You’re very kind, Julien.) He murmured, voice slightly broken. “ _Merci beaucoup._ ” (Thank you very much.)

Julien grinned and patted his hand on Alex’s shoulders. “ _C'est ce que font les amis, Alexandre_.” (It’s what friends do, Alexandre.) He replied in a quiet, cheerful tone before offering his arms outstretched for a hug. The RAID medic gladly leaned forward and accepted the embrace, and enveloped Rook with his arms as well, tightly hugging him and he lightly sniffled into Julien’s shoulder. “ _Tu devrais dormir._ ” (You should sleep.) Julien noted. “ _Tu as l'air vraiment fatigué_.” (You look very tired.)

“ _Ouais… tu es raison._ ” (Yeah… you’re right.) Alexandre gave in as he separated from the hug with a quiet yawn. He pushed himself up off the couch and headed over to the doorway to the side room. “ _Bonne nuit, Julien._ ” (Good night, Julien.) He called over his shoulder.

“ _Bonne nuit, Alexandre_.” (Good night, Alexandre.) Rook replied happily.

Soutien sighed in relief as he entered the side room where he had been sleeping. It felt nice to finally come back and be able to lie down after a long day of work. He trudged over to his suitcase, knelt down beside it, and searched through his belongings until he found a pair of pajamas to wear. He quickly changed into them and went to sit down at the edge of the bed, trying not to make the old bed frame creak under his weight. He removed his round glasses and set them on the table beside the bed. Then, he lied down on top of the covers, since the apartment did feel a little warmer than the previous night.

Just as he was about to curl up with one of the throw blankets and his pillow, he heard his phone buzz on the side table. He groaned and reached over to grab it before turning the screen on.

_3 New Messages!_

Alexandre swiped up and saw that he had two messages from Gustave and a more recent one from Jordan. He checked the most recent first, seeing as how it was rather late. Did he forget something at Thermite’s place? He clicked on their new chat and he read it to himself.

J: _Hey, great game tonight! Seems the gang really likes ya._

Alex smirked and quickly typed back.

A: _Thanks for inviting me over. I had a lot of fun. When’s the next one?_

J: _Damn, already planning to beat my ass again?_

A: _You know it. I told you, I came to win Jordan!_

J: _I just went easy on you this time cause you were new. Don’t expect me to be nice to ya next time around._

Alexandre snorted a laugh and shook his head in dismay as he replied back once more.

A: _Oh, so were you also going easy on Adriano, too? Is that why he won and you didn’t?_

J: _Whatever kid. Your ass is mine next game._

A: _If you want my ass that badly Jordan all you have to do is ask haha_

J: _You know damn well that isn’t what I meant!_

Soutien backed out of the conversation with Jordan, deciding it would be funny to leave him off on that note for the night. He tapped on the new messages from Gustave and noticed that it was two smaller paragraphs and his eyes widened with mild concern. Was this about the argument they had earlier? He quickly began to read, praying that it wasn’t an angry text.

G: _Alexandre, Six is asking me to accompany him and a few others on a business trip to discuss getting additional funds for a project. I’ll be out of the office for about two weeks, which means that you’ll have to take care of everything while I’m gone. I’m going to send you a list of what all needs to be taken care of during that time. I’m sure you can handle this on your own._

G: _Please make sure to schedule the follow up appointment with Jordan for his recent burns. He had been avoiding me today, and he needs to get those burns re-wrapped. Olivier also needs a follow up between tomorrow and friday to check for any infections. Everything else you can schedule at your convenience, but don’t put off any of the paperwork. We need to keep those documents updated._

Alexandre let out a long, frustrated exhale and he repositioned himself to sit up on his bed. A sudden business trip for two weeks? Gustave must have felt pretty comfortable with Soutien handling the medical wing until he returned, otherwise he would have definitely called and made sure that Alexandre was up to the task. Without really thinking, Alex typed away a response.

A: _When are you leaving?_

G: _Tomorrow before lunch. I’ll be there in the morning, but only for a couple of hours. Then I’ll leave the keys to the medical wing on your desk._

Alexandre’s eyes skimmed the message over and over, trying to see if this was some sort of joke, but it wasn’t, not as far as he could tell.

A: _You’re leaving tomorrow? Why am I just now finding out about this?_

G: _It was a last minute arrangement for me to join Six on the trip. He needs my experience running the facilities to encourage the donors to give us more money._

A: _I understand that, but why didn’t you tell me hours ago when you finished talking to Six? Why not just tell me then and not wait until I’m about to go to sleep? Now I feel completely unprepared._

G: _You were out of the medical wing by the time I returned. Gilles told me you had gone to Jordan’s game night._

Alexandre frowned and rubbed his temple, wishing that he wouldn’t have the growing headache that was pulsing in the front of his skull.

A: _Alright, fine. I’ll take care of things while you’re gone, but you, Six, and I need to have a serious conversation about keeping me in the loop with all of these changes. I’ve only been here three days and I already feel like I’m running around like a chicken without its head._

G: _I know, Alexandre. I’m sorry. I’ll talk to Harry when we fly out tomorrow afternoon._

G: _...Did you at least have fun playing cards with everyone?_

Soutien sighed softly, but his lips did curve into a faint smile.

A: _Yes, I did. Everyone made me feel welcomed. They remind me too much of my unit back in Bordeaux. Even Jordan’s little hissy fits._

G: _Haha. I’m glad that you’re doing well here so far. I was worried that it might be a rough transition for you, but it’s good that you adjusted so well._

A: _Yeah. I really like it here._

Alexandre paused and he felt his body grow cold when he remembered the argument he had with Gustave earlier in the day. Thankfully he didn’t seem too upset with him after all of that, but Alex really didn’t like the idea of him leaving the base without them getting to resolve that issue.

A: _Gustave… do we have time tomorrow to talk about what happened today?_

G: _Of course. If you come in at 0600, we can talk about it over coffee. I can also show you all of the documents you will need for the next two weeks._

Alexandre huffed a breath of relief before slinking down to get comfy in his bed, then he rolled over on his side to keep texting his friend.

A: _Perfect. Thank you, Gustave._

G: _No problem. Now you should go and get some sleep, since we have things to take care of tomorrow._

A:  _ Alright, alright. Have a good night Gustave. _

G:  _ You too, Alex. _

With that being said and done, Alexandre plugged his phone into the charger, set his alarm, and put the phone down onto the side table. Then, he curled up with the throw blanket once more and allowed himself to slowly drift off to sleep. Hopefully by the coming morning he would be able to figure out how he would run the facilities in Gustave’s absence.

Tomorrow is another day, and Alex was almost afraid of what it might bring.


	7. Calm Before the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexandre talks to Gilles and Julien before heading to base to have a discussion with Gustave. There's a lot that Soutien will have to tackle over the next two weeks. Will he be prepared for it?

When the following morning came, Alexandre was up a few minutes before his alarm, thanks to someone’s car alarm going off. At least it provided him some extra time to get ready for the day. He definitely had enough time to get dressed, have breakfast, and discuss moving in with Jordan to Julien and Gilles before he would have to go to work. Alex hopped out of bed, then turned around to immediately rearrange the bedsheets to be neatly spread out.

Once he was done cleaning up the small little messes from the night before, Soutien walked over to his suitcase and dug out one of his nicely folded, button up shirts, a pair of jeans, socks, and he grabbed his closed-toed shoes. He had set them on the foot of the bed when he heard a knock on the guest bedroom door. Alexandre perked his head up and glanced over towards it.

“ _Ouais_ ?” (Yeah?) The door opened and Alexandre was a little more than surprised to see that Montagne was standing in the doorway. “Oh, Gilles. _Ç_ _a va_?” (Oh, Gilles. How are you?) 

Gilles smiled. “Would you mind speaking English this morning?” He saw Alex raise a brow and he chuckled. “Six and I talked about me mastering another language, so we agreed on English before I tried something else. I need to practice more though.”

“Ah okay.” Soutien smiled cheerfully. “Of course. So, what’s up?”

“Gustave said you wanted to see him earlier this morning, so I made you some breakfast to go, and the coffee pot is still warm if you want to make a cup before you go.” Monty informed him with a kind smile leaned against the door frame.

Alexandre grew a little flustered and he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “You didn’t have to do that, Gilles. I was just going to get some food at the mess hall.”

Gilles waved it off and shrugged. “It’s okay. Just take it anyway. Maybe Gustave will want some. I’m sure he’s been in his office all night. Either that or he skipped breakfast. One of the two.”

Soutien frowned. “How often does he do that? The whole skipping meals and not getting sleep thing?”

“A better question is, when is it not happening?” The shield bearer sighed deeply and glanced down towards where Alex was kneeling by the bed. “He does it a lot. He always says he’ll get more sleep later or he’ll get food as soon as he can, but we’ve all learned that he doesn’t keep that word.”

“And nobody makes him go and take a nap or eat food?” Alexandre wondered curiously. “Nobody stepped in at all? That’s incredibly unhealthy in more ways than I can count.” He brought a hand to his face and rubbed his temples in dismay. “Gustave…” He murmured under his breath.

“We tried, Alexandre, believe me. I’ve dragged him out once or twice, but then he gets very angry at any of us for days after.” Montagne confessed. “And when he isn’t happy, it really affects the whole team.”

Alexandre moved to stand up and faced him. “Well, whether he likes it or not, he’s going to have to change that. I refuse to let him do that to himself… and if he’s been doing that since long before I got here, that means it’s become a nasty habit.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “And that habit is one that I won’t allow him to have.”

Gilles scoffs. “Well, good luck. He’ll definitely snap at you for trying to meddle in his lifestyle.”

“Lifestyle? What he’s doing isn’t a lifestyle, it’s a total disaster to himself and towards others that he practices medicine with. If he isn’t maintaining a healthy routine, then he can put others at risk.” Alexandre pushed his glasses up and put his hands on his hips. “I don’t like to meddle, but I will if I have to.”

Montagne chuckled softly and stood up straight again. “You sound just like him. No wonder you two got along so well back in the day.”

Alexandre snickered. “Yeah, everything I do now, I got from him. So I would hope I’m like him.” He mused, then grabbed his change of clothes to go head into the bathroom. Gilles let him out and he went to the kitchen while Alex walked off to go get changed. After he was done, he came back out, went to the kitchen island, and sat down on a bar stool. He was officially dressed for work. Glasses on, a clean button up white shirt, blue jeans, and his work shoes, along with the watch on his right wrist.

“So, what’s on your schedule today, Gilles?” He glanced around. “And where’s Julien?”

“Here…” Julien trudged out from down the hall, still in his pajamas, and his blonde hair was a total wreck. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head while the other two, fully dressed operatives, gave him an amused glance.

“Still waking up?” Alexandre teased.

“Don’t mind him.” Montagne smirked. “He’s still getting used to sharing a bed. Usually he sleeps on the couch or the guest bed, but since you’re taking up the guest room, I refuse to let him sleep on the couch.”

Alexandre gave a small laugh and rested an arm on the island. “Sorry, Julien. You’ll have your bed back soon, I promise. I was actually going to talk to you guys about that.” He thanked Gilles when he was handed a cup of hot coffee. “Jordan offered for me to stay with him at his place. It’s just him and he has a guest room that I can take over. I think It’ll be better for all of us.”

Julien frowned and made his way over to sit next to Alexandre. “You’re gonna leave? But we like having you around.”

Soutien smiled. “I know, but the place is too small for three people, Jules. I’ll still come by often.” He took a sip of his coffee and sighed with relief. “I think Jordan lives a couple of blocks from here, so I’m not too far.”

Rook huffed in defeat and folded his arms on the counter. “I guess… when are you leaving?”

Alexandre shrugged. “I hadn’t worked out the details with Jordan yet. I was going to talk to you guys first and make sure you knew what was going on.” He grinned. “If you want me to stay a little longer, how about I leave in two days, and we can do a movie night the night before I go? Then we get some more time to hang out as roommates.”

Gilles hummed happily. “That sounds like a great idea, Alexandre.”

Julien let a small smile shine through and he sighed. “Fine, that works with me.”

Alexandre checked his watch and tilted his head back before groaning. “I have to get my bag and head out. It’s already almost 5:30.”

Gilles set breakfast out for Julien before tossing his oven mitts to the side and going to grab his keys. “I’ll drive you.” He glanced over his shoulder to Rook. “Julien, lock up when we leave. I have the keys.”

“ _D’accord!_ ” (Okay!)

* * *

[30 Minutes Later…]

After Alexandre was dropped off at Rainbow Headquarters, he bolted through the security gate and headed towards the medical wing. Once he was about halfway there, he slowed down to steady strides, and he sent a text to Gustave letting him know that he would be there in a couple of minutes. After he put his phone away, he heard a familiar voice call out to him.

“Hey, Alex! Wait up!”

He turned around and smiled when he saw Jack jog over towards him from where the R&D labs were at.

“Oh, hey Jack. What’s up?”

He stopped to continue walking alongside Soutien before replying, “I wanted to talk to you about that idea you gave to Six and Mira the other day. How did you come up with that? When Elena showed me the concept and the designs she drew up, I couldn’t believe it.”

Alexandre felt pride swell in his chest and he shrugged his shoulders while offering a sheepish smile. “I uh… I guess it just came to me, you know?”

“Well with a great idea like that, I can’t wait to see your gadget in the labs.” He noticed the medic frown and seemed a little less enthusiastic. “You are going to be testing your gadget, right? I saw some space on the schedule.”

Soutien exhaled a deep breath and shook his head. “Even if I had my gadget in it’s testing stages, I’m going to be far too busy to do any R&D work over the next couple of weeks. I guess Gustave needs me to handle the medical wing until he gets back from going on that business trip with Six.”

Pulse was genuinely puzzled. “A business trip? When are they leaving?”

“Today.”

Jack scratched the side of his head and he glanced down at the floors as they walked. “I knew that Six and Elena were going, but not Doc.”

“It was some last minute thing, I guess.” Alexandre explained. “Something about helping to get more funds from investors or something like that.”

Jack’s lips thinned as he grew skeptical about the whole thing. He knew that Alexandre was telling the truth, but based on the information, it didn’t feel like this was any normal, routine trip. It sounded like there was more depth to this than just finances and getting funding.

“Well, how do you feel about all of this?”

Alex smirked in mild amusement. “What are you, my therapist?”

Pulse crossed his arms over his chest. “No, but I am a colleague. I just wanted to see how you feel about it. You’ve only been here a few days. I didn’t think they would throw all that on you just yet.”

Soutien shrugged. “I’m fine with handling the administration duties and scheduling all of the appointments. I just wished that people here would give me more time to prepare.”

“People?” Jack emphasized. “As in more than one person did it already?”

Alex gave a short laugh. “Yeah. First Six, then Gustave.” He ran a hand through his hair and scratched the back of his head. “It feels like I’m being put on the back burner. My gadget development was postponed, then Six forgot to find me a place to stay, and now I got two weeks worth of work to suddenly maintain.”

“Have you brought that up to anyone?”

“Yeah.” Alexandre replied firmly. “Every single time something like this happened, I brought it up and they replied with ‘we’ll let you know in advance next time’.”

“Well that’s shitty.” Pulse deadpanned. “Well, if you ever need some help, don’t hesitate to ask. I can get the FBI to give you a hand, just say the word.”

Alexandre happily hummed and smiled up at him. “Thanks, Jack. I appreciate it. For now I should be fine. I’m gonna go run some final things by Gustave and then it’s work time for me.” He stopped at the door to the medical wing and held his hand out for a kind farewell. “Maybe when I have some spare time we should have a little sparring match. I could use some practice and get some pointers.”

Jack clapped his hand to Alexandre’s and shook it. “Hell yeah, Alex. I’m usually in the R&D lab or in the training facilities, so just come find me whenever you wanna have a little brawl.” He responded with a small grin. “Good luck with work.”

“Thanks, you too.” He nodded a goodbye before releasing Jack’s hand and headed inside the medical wing. He took a look around and noticed the place was very pristine, just the way he had left it when he parted from his work the night before. Soutien walked over to his office and set his duffle bag down beside his desk. Then, he walked right back out to go peek into Gustave’s office. Lo and behold… the older medic was asleep on his desk, using his arms as a pillow.

“Gustave…” He murmured softly and frowned in slight disappointment. He must have been here all night based on the condition of his office. Paperwork was scattered all over the desk, and a few sheets on the floor, and there was no sign of his coffee mug, meaning he hadn’t gotten it out yet to even start his morning. He hadn’t even woken up.

Alexandre carefully stepped into his office, bent down, and began to pick up the papers that had fallen down. Then, he set the papers off to the side on top of the filing cabinet. Afterwards, he tidied up the papers he could grab from off the desk, and put them in their appropriate folders. Once the office was decently clean, minus the papers that were still under Doc’s arms, the brunette knelt down beside the desk and lightly nudged his mentor. Doc only murmured faintly and tried to keep himself asleep. Soutien sighed and nudged him a little more. This time, Gustave sat up straighter and rested his head in his hands, with his arms propped up by the elbows.

Alexandre stood up and went to grab Gustave’s mug from the nearby cabinet. “How much cream do you want?” He asked as he noticed the other finally starting to wake up.

“What time is it?” The GIGN medic muttered unhappily to himself.

“It’s 6 o’ clock, now answer my question. It looks like you need the caffeine more than I do.” Alexandre glanced over his shoulder as he turned on the Keurig machine that was at the other corner of Doc’s office.

“About two tablespoons.” Gustave replied weakly and tried to fix his messy salt and peppered locks of hair. “ _Merde_ … I can’t believe I slept in.”

“I can’t believe you slept _here_.” Alexandre muttered and leaned against the wall and turned to face his colleague. “Weren’t you the one who told me not to sleep here because it’s not meant for proper sleep?”

“Alexandre… it was only one night,” Before he could continue, his former student immediately retaliated.

“But it wasn’t.” Gustave could see the look of disappointment and concern written all over his partner’s face, and the faint hint of sadness in his eyes was what made it worse. “I don’t want to meddle, but if this is a habit that you’ve developed, it needs to be broken.”

Doc grumbled tiredly and rubbed the back of his neck. “Alex, you have to understand. Before you were recruited, I had very minimal help to do all of these tasks that I’ve been doing. I had to work 48 hour shifts every few days, and I barely had time to recuperate before I would have to go back to it again.”

Alexandre brought over the mug of coffee for his friend and sat down across from him at his desk. He waited for Gustave to have a sip of the drink before listening to him continue.

“I have been running as a solo medic for Rainbow for four years, maybe five depending on what day I joined. Remember all that work you’ve been doing with me and that was very tough as it was?” Soutien nodded faintly. “That’s what I had to do on my own until you arrived. It’s very tedious work, and it has to be done by a certain time, even with sudden injuries, casualties in the field, I have had to compensate for it all.”

 _Doc’s got a lot on his plate_. Jordan’s words from their first encounter began to hit Alexandre hard and he felt his heart sink. No kidding… it was almost unfair how much Doc was expected to do in the time span he’s given.

“Why didn’t they recruit anyone sooner…?” Alexandre asked softly, voice now nowhere near as aggressive as it had been when he tried to call Gustave out on his habits. Now he felt almost embarrassed for doing so. “You’re telling me they couldn’t bring in any other medical specialist for almost five years?”

“Six is trying to fix that.” Gustave assured the younger french man. “I’m… not supposed to talk about this, but since I’m leaving you with such a large responsibility in my absence, you deserve to know.” He leaned back in his seat and took a big sip of his coffee before continuing on. “This business trip is part of Six’s big project. I can’t specify what the project is or what it will become, but what I will say is that I’m supposed to be there on the trip to gain a higher ground for our medical team and research. Recruiting a nursing staff, getting updated equipment, all of it.”

Alexandre sighed with relief, feeling better now that some of his questions lurking in his head had been answered. Though, there was still a lot more to uncover for this whole project. At least he had a basic idea in Gustave’s role in all of it. “It sounds like a pretty big deal…”

“It is.” Gustave assured him. “When this project is done… I think Rainbow will be the best it has ever been.” He set his mug down and folded his arms along the desk. “Now, what did you want to talk to me about?”

Soutien shook his head a little, still trying to grasp the information he had been given, but he quickly replied in a calm manner, “I wanted to talk about the argument we had the other day… about you and Olivier.”

“Ah, yes. I remember now.” Gustave softly sighed and his hands interlocked with each other. “I don’t blame you for getting upset with me. Olivier and I have a rough history, and after certain events happened, I began to grow weary of him and I have been trying to keep him out of my life.”

“Was what happened between you two that bad to the point you didn’t want to treat his injuries?” Alexandre wondered, not trying to sound rude, but he needed to get some more context if he was going to let the situation go.

“Yes, it was…” Doc was nervously messing with his hands as he tried to describe the incident. “About five years ago, before either of us joined Rainbow, we had worked together during the Ebola crisis in Africa.”

Alexandre nodded, recalling the news reports he had read. “That’s right. Doctors without Borders, CBRN specialists, and any available researchers were tasked with finding the cure and containing the virus.” He hummed in thought. It was something he vaguely knew about, but nothing that would aid him in realizing what went wrong. “So, you two were put on a team together?” Gustave nodded. “Doing what?”

“Olivier and his sub-section of the team were the ones who organized the quarantine zones and handled incoming cases. While I, and other medics, were tasked to get information from the already infected and find evidence to be able to make the vaccine.” Gustave’s throat suddenly felt dry and he took a few more sips of the caffeinated beverage, then continued. “Everything had been going well so far. Infection rates were lower, and we were making significant strides on the research end of it all.”

Soutien tilted his head a little. “But there was the second spike, right?”

Doc raised a brow and was a bit shocked by his spot on assumption. “How did you know that?”

Alex gave a faint smile. “It was one of the biggest things I remember from our study session about viruses. Each virus, when newly introduced, has two big spikes. The start, and at a seasonal shift.” His kind voice seemed to ease Gustave’s growing tension. “So, the spike happened. What ended up going wrong?”

Gustave grumbled a bit, not really liking that he had to remember what went down that day, but it was necessary. “The infections spiked faster than we could have predicted, and Olivier’s team had to change their approach to the quarantines… but by the time they developed a new plan, one of our research teams got caught in the new quarantine parameters…” He began to subconsciously rub his arms to ease his nerves. “My… colleague, he got caught in there, and was infected. I tried everything I could to save him but…” The older medic couldn’t finish his sentence, nearly choking on his words as he remembered the final moments up until his friend’s death.

Alexandre moved his arm to rest a hand on top of Doc’s forearm, squeezing it reassuringly. This time, he had no smile, but he calmly finished the sentence for him. “The virus spread too quickly… there was nothing that could have prevented that.”

“If Olivier and his team hadn’t taken so long then-”

“No.” Alexandre firmly interjected. “What happened was out of your control, for both of you.” He saw Gustave’s expression shift to a more surprised and almost irritated look, probably because he had gone against his mentor’s belief. “Hear me out,” Alex pressed on with his explanation. “The spike was unpredictable. Neither of you could have been properly prepared in time to handle what happened. Even if Olivier and his team found a new quarantine parameter in time, they would have still been hit by the virus.”

Doc glanced away from Soutien and didn’t say a word. He was more than likely trying to find some way to justify his years of spite towards the CBRN specialist, but he seemed to have failed. “Alexandre… even if it wasn’t his fault, I still can’t help but hate that things could have been different.” He murmured. “Olivier hadn’t even shown the basic kindness towards the infected team. He just put up the quarantine barriers and moved on.”

Alexandre frowned and scratched the back of his head. He let out a soft breath and replied, “I understand that… I think it’s a common thing for everyone to want things to play out in the best possible way.” He saw Gustave faintly nod. “Have you even talked to Olivier to get his side of the story?”

Gustave leaned back into his chair and rubbed his forehead. “No… I was afraid of what he might say.”

“Well,” Soutien gave a faint smile. “Maybe you should. I’m not saying it has to be right away, but think about it over your trip, alright?”

Doc lightly groaned at the idea of having to approach Lion and getting a smug response about ‘finally wanting to talk’, but he couldn’t argue with what Alexandre had told him. He couldn’t have a proper reason to be angry until he tried talking with Olivier and hearing his side. “Fine. I’ll think about it.”

“Good.” Alexandre got up to go and rinse out Gustave’s mug, then put it away back in the cupboard. “Now, you should go and get ready to leave. I think I can handle everything here.”

Doc chuckled. “Don’t burn the base down while I’m gone.”

Alexandre leaned against the door frame for a second. “Who do you take me for? Jordan?” He asked with an amused grin, then pushed himself to stand upright and began to head toward his own office. “I got this, Gustave!” He called happily.


	8. A Medic's Work is Never Dull

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexandre begins his solo work while Doc is away on a business trip, and he gets invited to join a sparring tournament with a lot of the other operators. Will he be able to prove his strength against the rest?

Alexandre plopped down into his chair at his desk with a small huff. He could hear Gustave gathering his things in the office next door and he hummed to himself. Glancing down at his desk, he noticed that there was a small box, held together with a thin red ribbon. Underneath the ribbon was a tiny card with a message on it. “To Soutien, From Six”. He unfolded the paper and the medic couldn’t help but chuckle at the near perfect handwriting. It would have been a crime to try and compare it to his own sloppy doctor’s scribbles.

_Alexandre, I noticed that you seem to take a big interest in the finer details of things, much like a few other operatives I know. As an apology for my failure to provide you a smooth transition to England, allow me to give you a gift, from one note taker to another. I believe you may find it very useful. -Harry_

After unwrapping the ribbon and setting both it and the note onto his desk, Soutien went to open the box itself. Upon opening the lid, he found an audio recorder, very sleek in it’s design. It had a black and silver color scheme, and the buttons were pastel blue. At the base of the recording device, was a decal of his operator emblem, something he had designed for himself a long time ago. Alexandre smiled and took the recorder out of the box, turning it over in his hands to admire the whole thing.

This was definitely something Moreau would put to great use. He loved to describe his day to any who wanted to listen, and often wrote in a journal until his hand began to cramp, but now he didn’t have to worry about such things. He could just verbally note all of his experiences, all of his incredible moments, or frightening falls. It was the perfect way to clear his head if he needed it.

“Huh…” The french man smirked and his thumb brushed over the emblem at the bottom of the recorder. “Not bad, Six… Not bad at all.” He flicked on the power switch to the device and beamed happily seeing the buttons have a faint illumination to them now. “Alright… let’s see how well it works.” Without any hesitation, he pressed the record button and held the rectangular object close to him.

“Soutien’s audio log, entry one.” The French medic got comfortable in his seat, lying back and taking a deep breath. He noticed that it was still recording and he continued on confidently. “Today I’ve been assigned to take care of the medical wing administrative duties and on-site care until, presumably, September 13th… I’m not entirely sure what to expect, but at least if things go south, Pulse offered to bring in his team to help. I’ve been settling into Rainbow nicely, I suppose. Other than a few little bumps, I can’t really complain. I’m working with my old mentor from university, and I’ve met a few friends from other countries.” He chuckled happily.

“I’m supposed to be moving in with an American named Jordan Trace. He’s one of the first operatives I met, and I gotta say, he’s definitely growing on me. He reminds me of Elliot from my former RAID unit. Sassy, confident, maybe a little too cocky… but he’s really nice.” Alexandre felt a faint warmth in his chest as he recalled his first time meeting the excitable Texan, and he smiled. “ _Très beau, aussi._ ” (Very handsome, also.) He added in a bit of a softer tone.

He quickly cleared his throat and Alexandre sat up. “I should probably go and double check that the medical wing is ready for today, but I’ll add more notes as the week goes on. End Log.” Soutien pressed the stop button and tucked the recording device into his front pocket. Now that he got to do what he wanted to do this morning, Alexandre had his own job to perform. Gustave had put up an itinerary outside of his office while he was fiddling with his new gift earlier, so maybe it would be best to start there.

He got up and out of his seat and stepped outside his office to pluck the itinerary out of his office’s inbox shelf. On it were some typed up notes, laying out how each day should go up until the other medic returns.

It was currently Monday, so he checked the suggested schedule that had been written out. Jordan needed his follow up now that two days had passed since his visit to the infirmary. Ryad was going to talk to him about whether or not the new sleeping medication was working for his insomnia. Maxim needed a follow up for his cuts, as well as Olivier. Other than that, he had nothing else he was required to take care of. He could arrange the rest of his day as he pleased. Maybe he would go spar with Jack after all.

Checking his watch, Alex realized it was already seven o’clock, which meant that all of the operators would be checking into the facilities by now, or already have. That meant he could start making his calls to get his follow ups and scheduled appointments into the medical wing as soon as possible.

First one on his list was Jordan. That should be fun. He pulled his phone from his back pocket and scrolled through his contacts until he found Jordan’s number. He tapped the call button and brought the phone to his ear as he went to go and prep a couple of beds.

After a couple of rings, the connection went through. _“Hey, Alex! What’s up?”_

“Hey, Jordan. Mind coming in this morning so I can check on your burns? It’s time for your follow up.” He asked kindly, smiling at hearing the southern accent through the phone. Thermite sounded a little confused in his next response.

_“Uh, usually Doc takes care of that.”_

“Yeah, I know, but Doc had to take an unplanned trip with Six somewhere with Mira, so I gotta hold down the fort. He left his notes about the burns and their healing process, so I can take care of anything if need be.” Alexandre explained as he set a fresh box of gloves down at a prep station before closing the metal locker.

Jordan sighed softly. _“I guess I can swing by. Any specific time I should be there?”_

“No later than noon. Come in whenever you’re able to alright?” Alex smiled, his tone chipper.

Thermite chuckled. _“Alright. I’ll shoot you a text. Later, Alex.”_

“Later Jordan.”

Alexandre checked the itinerary for the phone numbers of the other ops he needed to see today, and called them as well. From what he could gather, everyone would be coming in before lunch, so that was perfect for him. He could handle all of his tasks at the first half of the day, and the second half he could plan for himself.

As he had finished setting up the last of the beds and respective medical carts, Alexandre had heard the doors to the medical wing open and close. He glanced over his shoulder to see who had come in, and was surprised to see that it was someone he hadn’t met yet.

“Give me just a second.” He called over towards the stranger and had closed up the storage cabinet. Then, he walked over to the waiting area where the man was casually standing. He had dark brown hair, brown eyes, paler skin, and wore street clothes, specifically a hoodie, blue jeans, and adidas shoes. Soutien smiled at him kindly and placed his hands on his hips. “What can I do for you?”

“I just came to say hello.” He had a light German accent, and he had returned the smile enthusiastically. “I heard you had started here the other day, but I was too busy in the labs to introduce myself.”

Alexandre nodded in understanding. However, after taking a minute to analyze the man standing in front of him, his eyes widened when he realized that he was very familiar, and not for a good reason. “You were the one that knocked me over into the wall when I first got here.” He scowled a little and crossed his arms over his chest. “You and whoever was chasing you.”

The man flinched at the response and he nervously chuckled before rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry. Elias and I were having a race to the R&D labs, and I guess we weren’t watching where we were going. I heard you yell in French, but I thought maybe it was someone else.”

Soutien lightened up a bit and offered a joking smirk. “Who do I sound like?” He mused, tilting his head to the side.

The German operative shrugged his shoulders. “I thought maybe you were Julien. You and him have the same tone when you yell.” He let out a small laugh. “I guess I already started off on the wrong foot then.” He reached out a hand towards Alexandre. “I’m Marius. GSG9.” He greeted him kindly.

Soutien smiled and accepted his hand, shaking it a bit before letting go. “Alexandre. RAID.” He chuckled faintly. “It’s nice to meet you Marius.” He noticed that there was an envelope in his hand. “Who’s that for?” He wondered. Jager beamed with delight and held it out towards the medic.

“It’s for you, actually. It’s a gift from all of us.”

Alexandre felt a mild heat rise in his cheeks as he took the envelope. “Thank you!” He replied cheerfully. He opened the envelope and pulled out the card that was inside. It had Rainbow’s logo on it, and when he flipped it open to look at the inside, there was a message on it surrounded by dozens of signatures. _Welcome to the team. We’re glad to have you!_

“You guys didn’t have to do this.” Alexandre tucked the card back into the envelope and set it aside on one of the end tables of the waiting area. “But I appreciate it. Everyone’s been so nice to me since I got here.”

“You’re part of the family.” Marius hummed happily and tucked his hands into his hoodie pocket. “Are you joining the sparring tournament in the training facilities?”

Alexandre shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure yet, honestly. I have to get my work for today done before I can even think of doing anything else.” He replied calmly. “When are you guys doing it?”

“We were thinking around five or six when everyone is getting off-shift. I think Seamus is setting up the brackets for the tournament, so you should probably let someone know if you’re joining before then so you can get a ‘dance partner’.” Marius grinned. “It’s something the whole base likes to take part in, so I hope to see you there.”

Alexandre tittered. “I’ll try to be there, but no promises.” He pushed his glasses up. “Thanks for stopping by, Marius. I probably should get back to work. I’m supposed to be seeing a few patients today.”

“Of course! I’ll get out of your hair.” Marius waved to Alexandre. “I’ll talk to you later.” And with that, he headed out to go back to his normal routine for the day while Alexandre went back to his.

About an hour later, Jordan had walked into the medical wing. He hadn’t seen Alex at any of the examination beds, so he assumed the French man was probably working diligently on paperwork in his office. He strode over to the two offices at the left hand side of the infirmary and peeked into the doorway of Soutien’s office. He was right. His friend was typing at his desk computer, intensely glaring at the monitor as he did so. He was turned slightly away from the door, so he couldn’t see that Jordan had come in.

The Texan leaned up against the doorframe and knocked on it, smiling towards Alexandre when the medic looked in his direction. “Hey. Ready to get this over with?”

The RAID officer smirked as he stood up from his desk and pushed his office chair in. “You say that like you don’t like me.” He mused and walked over to Thermite after grabbing his file, who chuckled at the response. Alexandre guided him over to an open bed and had him sit down on the edge of it.

“Have you noticed any changes in your burns?” He asked while opening the FBI agent’s folder to examine the notes Gustave had left for him.

Jordan shook his head. “No, they’ve been the same. Hasn’t gotten any better or worse.”

“Okay.” Alex pursed his lips and rubbed the side of his jaw as he read through the details of how to administer care for Jordan’s specific condition. The man had gotten burned so many times that the scar tissue is essentially permanent. There’s no way to make a skin graph and heal a new layer onto them. It was unreal to think what could have caused so many burn injuries to the same location. “Well… based on your file, and the fact that there hasn’t been any major changes in the burns, all I have to do is a quick examination, make sure there’s no infection, and patch you back up.”

He closed the folder and set it aside. “Alright. Let me see your wrists so I can undo the bandaging.” He noticed that he seemed very hesitant to follow through with the order, but he eventually held out his arms. His gaze shifted away from the French medic and towards anything else that he could see.

Alexandre plucked a fresh pair of gloves from the box and tugged them onto his hands before carefully unwrapping the worn out bandages from Jordan’s arms. He started with the left arm first. Once he had fully unwrapped that arm, he tossed the old bandages into the trash can and lightly held onto the upper part of his forearm to avoid aggravating the burns.

As he examined the noticeable bright red burn locations, Soutien also noticed the copious amounts of uneven scar tissue everywhere else on his wrists that weren’t where the current burns were. His skin was burnt from the lower wrist all the way to the first knuckle of each finger. The sight made Alexandre’s eyes widen and he frowned at the sight.

“As far as I can tell, the burns don’t look infected. With some antibiotic cream and new bandages, they should start to heal over the next few days.” He informed Thermite, then went to unwrap the other arm and toss those old bandages out as well. “I advise you avoid any dangerous work until they’re healed up. That way there’s less risk of additional scarring.”

“Yes, sir.” Jordan drawled, sounding a little annoyed with the instructions he had been given.

Alexandre proceeded silently, applying the cream to Jordan’s burns. He seemed very focused on what he was doing, and didn’t bother to strike any form of conversation. From what he could see, Alex assumed that the burns on his arms wasn’t a talking point he preferred to use. Plus, Thermite wasn’t making any attempt to talk to him either, so it was probably best he didn’t force a talk with him.

After the cream was applied to both wrists, Soutien took out a new roll of bandages and began to wrap them. He made sure to be very gentle and didn’t touch any sections of the scarred tissue just in case there was any severe nerve damage. Once he was done, he set the bandages aside, removed the gloves, balled them up, and threw them out.

“There. You’re free to go.” He tucked his hands into his jean pockets and added afterward, “Oh, and I’ll be staying a couple more nights with Gilles and Julien. They wanted to have a bit more time with me before I switch apartments. I’ll probably pack my stuff thursday night and we can move my things friday afternoon.”

“No problem.” Jordan replied as he got off the bed. “I’ll make sure to clean out any of my things from the spare room tonight so you can have an easy move in.” He gave a small, playful salute to the medic. “See ya around, kid.” He mused while walking towards the exit of the medical wing.

Alex smirked and called over to him, “I’m older than you. Stop calling me that!” He chuckled when Jordan turned around and gave him a look of confusion.

“No you’re not.” Jordan gave a skeptical glance, sounding very unconvinced. “You look like you’re in your late twenties, maybe _early_ thirties.” He scoffed lightly. “I’m 35.”

Soutien crossed his arms over his chest and had an amused grin. “I’m 35, turning 36 this weekend.”

Jordan’s jaw hung open ever so slightly and his eyes widened. “Okay that’s not fucking fair. You look like you could still be in college.” He was fuming, but in a playful, disbelieving sense. It was near impossible for him to believe that the French man was older than him.

Alexandre shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t discount yourself, Jordan.” He responded cheerfully. “You’re a lot more handsome than you realize.” He mused, though he almost immediately realized what he had just said. Jordan seemed rather amused, but Alex now felt very, very embarrassed at what he let slip. “A-Anyway, I have work to do and so do you. We can talk more later.”

Thermite smirked and headed towards the doors again. “Alright. See ya later, Alex.”

* * *

The rest of his day had gone very smoothly. Olivier’s wounds were already beginning to heal without any issues. Ryad’s medication seemed to be working decently well for the time being, so he was asked to continue taking it and monitor the results. Maxim’s cut was still tender, but it would heal over time without any issues so long as he properly washed out the cut and didn’t let it get dirt inside.

Now that all of his work was done, all he had to do was tidy the medical wing back up like how it had been that morning and file all of the necessary paperwork. Then he would be home free for the rest of the afternoon.

While he was busy tucking away all of the files, after having reorganized them, Alexandre heard someone enter the medical wing and he called out, “I’m in my office.” He glanced towards the doorway when he heard the footsteps approaching, and he grinned when he saw a new face, though he branded the American FBI uniform, so he felt it was safe to assume he was the last member of their team he hadn’t been introduced to yet, though he knew his name from the medical records. “Oh, you must be Miles.”

The man smiled and gave a playful response, “You aren’t spying on me are you?”

Alex snickered. “No, just brushing up on operator files in my down time, that’s all.” He closed the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, locked it up, then stood to turn and face his visitor. “What can I help you with, Miles?”

“The team wanted me to come and see if you were joining the tournament, since our shifts are about over.” He replied casually. “If not that’s cool. Jack just wants to know so we can finalize the brackets.”

Soutien hummed in thought as he sat on the edge of his desk. He had finished all of his work, and there weren’t any emergencies. Plus, if anything were to happen at the tournament, he probably should be there anyway for medical care. Besides, it would give him a chance to get to know the other operatives.

With a grin, Alexandre replied, “Sure. Why not? Let me bring a small med-kit just in case and I’ll meet you guys in the training grounds.”

Miles beamed with joy and nodded. “Cool. I’ll see you there!” He quickly turned back around before he fully left, “Oh, and house rules say you need to wear your BDUs.”

Alexandre nodded. “Got it. I’ll go change then, too.” He snatched up his duffle bag filled with his gear, as well as one of the emergency medical kits that was up on top of one of the shelving units. Once he had all of that, he had gone to the locker rooms to change while Miles headed towards the training grounds.

Once he got to the locker rooms, Alexandre walked down the line of lockers until he reached where his locker was assumed to be, based on them being in alphabetical order. To his surprise, he had two lockers with his operator icon and the same “Soutien” on each one. He actually had a locker now. That was good to know. He opened it up and saw hangers on a rack for his uniform, and shelves beneath it for his boots and other gear.

“Nice.” He smiled and turned around to open his duffle bag that was resting on the nearby bench. He pulled out his combat boots, BDU pants, and the plain white t-shirt to wear with it. He also pulled out his dog tags and tossed them on top of the shirt. He removed his watch and tucked it away inside a small cubby in his locker, and also removed his glasses. If he was going to be sparring, he didn’t want to risk breaking them. So, he reached into the bag and grabbed his contacts case. He put in his contacts instead, that way he wouldn’t be blind as a bat while he fought.

Now he got to work on suiting up. He removed his work shoes, jeans, and unbuttoned his dress shirt to slip it off. He folded the clothes and tucked them onto the top shelf before grabbing his BDU pants, pulled those up and buckled the belt. He sat down onto the bench to take off the white socks he wore and replaced them with shin-high, military standard socks. After that, he quickly put on the white t-shirt and leaned down to put on his boots and lace them up. Lastly, he clipped the dog tags around his neck, put the rest of his belongings into the locker and closed it shut.

He jogged over to the training grounds, and was pretty impressed at the overall turn out. There were at least thirty operatives in the room warming up or having conversations with others. That meant that this would be a pretty big bracket tournament. It looked like everyone was occupied with their own thing, so Alex went to have a look around the training facility and give himself a personal tour. This was one of the few places he hadn’t gotten the chance to check out much, so it was a good idea to familiarize himself with it while he waited for the tournament to start.

Pretty soon after he made a lap around the place, someone had shouted so everyone could hear. “Alright, lads. The brackets have been made. Come take a look and get ready to fight.” The man was very tall, well built, and his voice was thick with a scottish accent. “Brackets one through six will spar first.”

Alexandre walked over to the large screen that was mounted at the other end of the training grounds. On it was a list of the first stage brackets. There were sixteen matches. So in total there were thirty-two participants. This was going to be interesting. He looked at the first six and hummed with curiosity at the line up.

_Jackal vs. Lion_

_Caveira vs. IQ_

_Thatcher vs. Montagne_

_Maverick vs. Soutien_

_Mozzie vs. Ying_

_Maestro vs. Sledge_

_I’m up against Erik, huh?_ Alexandre’s lips thinned as he tried to think of how he wanted to approach this. He hadn’t sparred against any of the operatives, unless that tussle with Jordan at his place counted. Regardless, that meant he was at a severe disadvantage compared to everyone else who was competing. He had to be ready for anything. There was no way he was going to go down in the first round.

“Match one, to the ring!” The scottish man announced as he headed over to act as the referee. The unfortunate thing about the tournament is that while Alex could learn everyone else’s fighting style, he wouldn’t be able to learn about Maverick’s until they actually start the fight. But, it would be good to watch the matches anyway and see what he can learn. Maybe he could pick up some ideas for a few impromptu moves, if he was lucky.

Ryad and Olivier had an interesting fight, but given that Jackal has more hand to hand experience than Lion had, it was easy to figure out who would win by the time the match reached it’s halfway point. By then Olivier was beginning to struggle and Ryad was still giving out punches and dodging without breaking a sweat. Ultimately, Ryad had won by pinning Olivier down and forcing a tap out.

Watching Caveira and IQ fight hand to hand was incredible. Both of them had impressive reflexes, and while one used a kick-boxing method of fighting, the other was using a sort of street fighting technique that Alexandre had witnessed from criminals he had to fight back in Bordeaux. Both sides had great strengths, but Taina was able to find a weak point in Monika’s style and was able to kick her off her feet. It took a couple minutes longer than the first fight, but in the end, Caveira won by holding her down for the needed time of five seconds.

Thatcher and Monty’s match surprised Soutien the most. Both operators are on the older end of the age scale in the base, but they both fought just as well as anyone else had thus far. Thatcher had some intensity to every punch, almost like he was channeling something into each hit. Each blow was precise and intentional for Montagne, given how skilled he is at upfront confrontation, but Thatcher was the opposite. He was wild, unpredictable, and even used the edges of the ring to his advantage against a larger opponent. It was very insightful to watch. At the peak of the match, Mike ended up shocking everyone by blocking Gilles' next attempted hit with one arm and used the other hand to give a restrained blow to his throat, forcing the other onto his knees to catch his breath. Mike took the opportunity to pin the larger man down and forced Montagne to tap out.

“And we have our winner!” Sledge announced with pride, the S.A.S cheering at the top of their lungs. Soutien walked over to Gilles, who had just gotten up after tapping out, and was rubbing his throat lightly.

Alexandre stopped at the edge of the ring and looked up to his friend. “ _Ça va_ ?” (You good?) Gilles nodded and offered a faint smile as he exited the ring, hopping over the edge and landing beside the medic. “ _Ouais. Je suis bien, Alex. Ce n'est pas la première fois il a fait ça._ ” (Yeah. I’m fine, Alex. This isn’t the first time he’s done that.) He replied with a scratchy chuckle. He clapped Alexandre’s shoulder and gave him a friendly squeeze to it. “ _Bonne chance avec ton match._ ” (Good luck with your match.)

Alexandre smiled nervously. “ _Merci, Gilles. Je ferai de mon mieux_.” (Thanks, Giles. I’ll do my best.)

“Alright, everyone, we got a new player in our ranks!” Seamus’s voice boomed through the training grounds. “Let’s give him a warm welcome to team Rainbow shall we? Give it up for Soutien!” He waved for the medic to enter the ring, and the French man did so. He climbed over the edge and stood at the center. The grand majority of the competitors in the room gave hollers of excitement, though some gave him skeptical glances. That was something that struck his self-consciousness hard. It seemed there were a few operators who thought he didn't belong here, people he hadn’t even met yet.

“And his opponent, Maverick!”

There was a significantly louder cheer for the Bostonian as he hopped over the edge into the ring, and confidence was written all over his posture. He didn’t seem to have any doubt that he would win. It began to chip away the confidence Alexandre had built up before the tournament.

Seamus turned to face Soutien and gave him a run down of the rules. “Alright, lad. Here’s the house rules. All forms of combat are permitted, except for use of physical weapons. No cheap shots like the crotch or the back of the head, and you can win by two different ways. Either pin Erik down for five seconds, or force him to tap out before then.” The Scottish man tilted his head. “You got that?”

Alexandre faintly nodded. “I can fight however I want, but nothing cheap and I win by pin-down or tap out. Seems pretty easy enough.”

Sledge smirked. “Exactly. Now let’s make this a clean fight, lads.” He backed out to the edge of the ring and stepped out to give the other two operatives the space to do their sparring match. 

Erik cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms over his head. “Give me a fight, Alex. I wanna see what you’re made of.”

Alexandre took a deep breath and got himself into a defensive position. “I never go down easy.” He offered a faint smile. “No hard feelings if I win, right?” He mused.

Erik chuckled. “Nope. But this match is mine.”

Sledge raised his arm up and grinned. “The match starts in three… two… one…” He glanced between the RAID officer and the GSUTR soldier, then threw his arm down. “Fight!”


	9. Author's Note

Hey Everyone!

First off, I'd like to thank you all for the amazing support on Empathy. It warms my heart to see that other people love my OC as much as I do, and that the story is engaging! Thank you for your sweet comments and encouraging me to continue his story. I do plan to write a LOT more for Alexandre, and his story isn't over. Not by a long shot.

However, I am a bit conflicted with how I had written these past few chapters. I do want Thermite and Soutien to get together, however, I think I focused on that more than Alexandre's personal development, and it ended up causing me to rush parts of the story that quite frankly shouldn't have been rushed. Along with that, I've had some recent developments that made me re-think how I'd like Alexandre to be viewed within Rainbow. The "Combat Psychologist" role does not suit him, given the background and other details I haven't shared here yet. Because of these recent realizations, I'd like to go back and re-write from a certain point in the story, specifically after the mid-way point of Chapter 9, "Down for the Count".

I wanted to hear your thoughts on this. I would like to re-write it, but if you all are enjoying the story as is, then I won't remove the current chapters beyond that point. Let me know what you think! Thank you all again for the incredible support, and I hope to be more active in the coming months when my college semester winds down. Have a wonderful weekend!

-Rainbow Lotus

EDIT: I have decided to delete chapters 9-13. I felt too conflicted about not pursuing a deeper perspective of Alexandre's beginning days in Rainbow and forming the necessary relationships that are going to be key later down the road. I'll be posting new chapters very soon, but for now only chapters 1-8 will be available.


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